


Underground

by ekoord



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Hydra (Marvel), Hydra Steve Rogers, M/M, SHIELD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-04-06 13:09:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 31,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14057646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ekoord/pseuds/ekoord
Summary: When Tony's being held captive by HYDRA, he learns quite a bit about one of their weapons, Steve Rogers.





	1. Chapter 1

     “We can’t exactly wipe his memory.” Said one of the doctors. He spoke as Tony sat with his hands in his lap, foot moving methodically to a beat in his own head. He’s sitting on the cement floor with his back to the wall. There are no bindings on him, he’s just got quite a few guards watching him like a hawk. That was enough to keep him from moving at all. He wasn’t stupid enough to try anything right now. “He’s a genius, if we wipe his memory he will be useless.”

     “That’s kind of rude.” Tony interjected and one of the rifles that had previously been at ease tightened the aim on him. “I wouldn’t be useless. I’d just be unaware of everything that I’ve created, so. I guess I’d be useless when it came to being your next weapon. Wiping my memory is a bad idea, anyways. You’ve got no idea what’s up there. Lots of funny jokes. I’d also have to watch a lot of porn to get my head back into the game--”

     “Quit talking.” Brock ordered. Tony rolled his eyes, and put his head back against the wall. “We didn’t bring you here to have a nice chat with you. You know exactly why we brought you here.”

     “Yeah. Because you can’t keep your weapons in line? Where did the Winter Soldier go, anyways? He couldn’t have gotten far, right? I thought you guys made him into a no-brained murderer? And besides, what made you pick me?”

     Tony got no response. He got nothing but a stare from everyone in the room. The next thing to be said was by a guard who entered the room on quick feet. “He’s back, for the mission report.” That was when Tony finally felt a sense of fear. Being kidnapped from his own penthouse didn’t even scare him.

     What scared him as Steve Rogers. Previously known as Captain America, and currently known as Captain HYDRA. Not too many people knew he was alive, anyways. It was a conspiracy theory that he was alive. Tony knew it to be true. And he also knew Steve was a very scary man now, because he could be told what to do and when to do it. Including the whole ‘go and kill these people’ missions. Those were the primary ones.

     After he got the mission report, Brock brought Steve to the room with Tony in it. Everyone else was gone. With just the three of them, Tony got to his feet. “Don’t try anything, he can kill you in a second.” Brock said right when Tony was standing. “Captain.” Brock said to Steve, and he got a blank stare of a response. “I want you to show Tony what a nice opportunity this is. I want you to break him in for me. Can you do that?”

     A few moments passed, but Steve nodded. Tony stepped back once, that was it. Other than that he just stood still and forced his heart to remain at a steady rate. Brock left the room. That made it even scarier.

     “Sucks that they erased your memory. You’re an attractive man.” Tony said, and Steve only stares at him. It’s like he was thinking about everything he could do to Tony, but also not comprehending a single thought in the process. “Do you not talk?” Tony asked, words speeding up because Steve took a step ahead to make up for Tony taking one step away before.

     They continued the routine before Tony’s back hits the wall. “Fuck,” he huffed out and looked at Steve, admiring his face even though it’s absolutely terrifying. He had a nice jawline, what could he say? “Okay fine, what’s the deal here? I say that I’m alright with doing whatever the fuck you want and you leave me the hell alone?” Tony asked, fear not in his voice but definitely in his mind.

     “Crossbones.” Steve said, voice a soft, but clear mumble.

     “I heard.” The responding voice came from a communicator in Steve’s ear. An earpiece that Tony didn’t even notice. Then Tony heard the breath of a sigh. “Keep going, though.”

     Keep going? Tony looked down to see Steve holding a metal bar. Then he saw the flick of a switch. It was a stun stick and Steve didn’t hesitate to press it against Tony’s side. It sent shocks all through Tony, high enough in power to send him to his knees since Steve didn’t pull it away come the ten second mark. Tony put a hand at his side where it happened, and it felt numb there beyond belief.  
  
     Then Steve grabbed at his hair, and Tony felt fear, he visualized it in his expression this time. “Okay we’re done, we’re done here. I’m already giving in, just stop.” He then heard laughter, from the door that was now open. Brock came inside again and pat Steve on the back, triumphantly.

     “Well, stand up. Captain, show him around.” He demanded, and Steve abided.  
     When they were in the barracks of the underground hideout, Tony looked around. “Couldn’t afford anything better, huh? I guess being a bunch of murders doesn’t oten pay that much.”

     In shock, Tony realized Steve took the commuter from his ear and switched it off. “It pays well sometimes.” He said this in a soft voice. Steve noticed the shock, and smiled. “Keep it a secret.” Keep what a secret? Tony looked around, and connected the dots. Steve was only acting like he was a mush-brained robot. The truth could be that he remembered everything, and knew what he was doing.

     “What kind of money do you get for killing people? What the hell do _you_ do with money?”

     “ _I_ don’t do anything with the money. I don’t get the money. I do what they tell me to do.”

     “So that means you know who you are?”

     Steve looked at Tony, and seemed a little off put. “Steve Rogers, right?” They stare at each other. It seems to last a long time. Steve’s good at holding eye contact though. “Yeah. I know who I am.”

     “Well. Knowing is half the battle.” 


	2. Chapter 2

     “What do you mean by that?” Steve asked when he finished ‘showing Tony around.’

     “By what?” It had been twenty or so minutes since they talked about ‘that.’ “Oh, by that.” They’re alone again. That’s a damn good thing, because if they weren’t Steve would just go into creepy stoic mode. “Don’t you want to get out of here? If you remember who you are, you aren’t as helpless as you first seem. You know more than they give you credit for.”

     As Tony talked about Steve getting out of there, he seemed blank. “I have nothing to go back to. It’s been seventy years.” He got a smile from Tony.

     “Anything is better than this, though. You’re being forced to kill people.”

     “You get used to it.”

     “You get used to what? Killing people?” Tony said and sounded confused. He didn’t know how else to feel about that, or how else to take the statement Steve just handed off to him. “What about the Winter Soldier? Isn’t he your partner in crime. Is he used to it?"

     “Who?” 

     “ _Who_? The guy you’re always seen with. The scary metal armed guy with cute hair.” With the words, Tony smiled. “Honestly if he wasn’t a serial killer, I’d swing for him.” Steve rolled his eyes.

     “I don’t know him. There’s probably a reason as to why they have us not knowing each other.” That seemed believable. Tony understood it, at least. If Bucky and Steve remembered each other, and knew what was going on completely, they’d be out and free in a matter of minutes. There were clearly some loops in this that HYDRA had carefully gone through. 

     Yeah, probably true. But, Tony wasn’t going to let that slide. He’s met Captain HYDRA, and now he’s going to meet the Winter Soldier. Who’s much more under wraps. He waited until days later to get more into it.

     Tony had free range of the underground base, the parts that Steve had range to as well. He could only go certain places when Steve was with him. Needless to say, he wasn’t surprised when he was stopped at the doors to the other barrack room across the base.

     “I have permission. Ask Cap'.” He spoke of Steve, and pushed the hand from his shoulder off pettily. The guard then looked at Tony while asking over the commuter. When Steve gave the okay (assuming it was just Tony being curious and wanting to look around more), he let Tony into the room. 

     In the room was only one bed, and nobody was in it. Nobody was in the room. It was small and weird. Vacant in design, that’s what made it weird. He didn’t know as much about Bucky as he did about Steve from when he was a kid, but he knew about Bucky enough. The only distinguishable thing was the slight curvature of the mattress. Something was wedged between. A journal, Tony found it to be. It was thin and filled with stuff, all kinds of stuff. What kind of stuff? Memories, that kind of stuff. Sad shit, happy shit, and shit that was neutral. 

     Though, Tony couldn’t get too far into reading it, because he heard someone speak up behind him. “Put it back.” Bucky said and Tony turned around. Bucky put his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt. They got to wear leisure clothing when they weren’t on missions.

     Slow hands put the journal back, and Tony turned around. “So you remember who you are too?”

     “Too?” They stare at each other for a long while, before Tony took a step to the door. “I remember who I am, yeah.” Bucky said, speaking as  slow  as Tony was moving. “Who else are you talking about?”

     “I’ll tell you later. And don’t worry, your secrets safe with me.” Tony got the hell out of that room, as soon as he was finished speaking. He got back to his own humble abode, and was slightly saddened to see that Steve wasn’t there to greet him. Maybe not sad, maybe just...lonely. Yeah, he felt kind of lonely without Steve there. Even if they’d only met days prior, and even if Steve really hurt him when they first met. Steve was nice, he was sort of like an anchor in this entire situation. When in doubt, Tony could look to Steve.

     When Steve came back, he wasn’t in the best shape. He was beaten to all hell, and Tony hated the sight. “What? They don’t clean the blood off of you before letting you go? That’s just lack of common courtesy!” 

     He watched Steve stand back up, because he’d fallen to his knees when he was pushed back into the barracks. “We clean ourselves up.” Steve claimed. 

     “We?” Did Steve remember Bucky after all?

     Steve looked at Tony. “You and I. You haven’t had to do it, yet.”

     “Hope I don’t ever have to.”

     “Keep hoping, then. It’s inevitable.” Silence came through, and Tony heard a faint ringing in his ears. He thinks it’s from the god-awful sound his suit commuter made when HYDRA paralyzed it. It was deafening.

     So Tony spoke to overlap the ringing. “What is this? A weekly beating or something?”

     “Sort of. A check up is a better term for it.”   
  
     “Check up on what?”

     “Loyalty.”

     “Loyalty. You’re just a really good liar, then?”

     “Why do you think I’m so beat up, Stark?”

     That was when the conversation halted. Tony looked confused, and it seemed like he was too confused to find words. “You know my last name? I never--”

     “I remembered last night. I knew your dad.”    
  
     “I know you knew my dad.” 

     “Why didn’t you tell me?” Steve asked this with a sparkle in his eyes that Tony didn’t understand. Tony didn’t understand a lot of things about Steve, and curiosity would surely kill the cat if he stays here any longer. “Why didn’t you tell me about Howard?”

     “He wasn’t the most favored person. I didn’t know if his name would be a trigger word for you, or something.”

     “You really don’t know how this works, do you?”

     “You’re a brainwashed murder weapon. It’s not that hard to understand. Unless you’re talking about the memory stuff. If so then yeah, I understand that too. Not fully. But I know you’ve been out of the freezer for too long, and it’s sort of like you’ve got freezer burn. The memories don’t matter because everyone in the memories are dead, but it still fucking hurts. It hurts, right? The memories hurt?”

     “The people in those memories think that I’m dead, too. They hurt, too.” Steve defended himself, his own emotions. “Who is the Winter Soldier?”

     Tony looked down. “I don’t think it’s the best time to tell you.”

     “Who is he?”

     “We’re stuck in an underground base, Rogers. We’re not going anywhere. This isn’t the best time to--” Tony felt himself lifted from the ground. Steve could probably hold him up with one hand. He definitely could. Tony then felt his back press into the wall. “It won’t help either of you!”

     The way Tony’s voice rang through the room was shrilling. He didn’t sound afraid, he sounded pissed off. “I don’t care, just tell me who he is!”

     Their stare off in that moment was probably just tension, but Tony couldn’t help but imagine a time and place where it’d turn him on. “Bucky Barnes.” Steve let go of him with that. “Your best friend, your war buddy. Whatever the hell he is to you. He’s the Winter Soldier.”

     Even after Steve got what he wanted, he didn’t look very happy. He actually looked a little saddened. “What?” Tony asked. “Hey, he’s the one set of memories that can be happy, right? He’s not dead!” Tony didn’t sound super enthused, he was just trying to keep Steve from frowning like that.

     “I don’t remember him.”


	3. Chapter 3

     The issue with Steve not remembering Bucky even after hearing his name was that he probably didn’t have the ability to remember. “I don’t know what to say.” Tony’s never sounded that unsure before. He always sounded so sure. Right now, he sounded uncertain.

     “But we were close. Why don’t I remember how close we were? Usually names like that jog my memory.” Concern seemed prominent in Steve’s voice. Tony didn’t blame him. Apparently HYDRA deliberately cut out a chunk of Steve’s memory. Completely. The memories were gone. 

     “They did this on purpose.” Tony stated. 

     “They did all of this on purpose. They said they won’t wipe all of your memory, Tony. But the chance of them erasing some of it is high.” Now Tony showed concern. “Family--”

     “Don’t have that.”

     “Girlfriend--”

     Tony laughed. 

     “Whatever. Okay? They’ll do the same thing to you if they can’t erase all of your memory.”

     “Why are you explaining this to me? I understand. Probably more than you do.”

     “I don’t think this is a competition.”

     “I think everything’s a competition if you look at it the right way.”

     Another one of those stare offs that could be mistaken as sexual took place. Tony smiled when he spoke to have it end. “I get what you’re saying. You want me to get out of here before it happens to me? You’re trying to be a hero?” Steve sighed when Tony said that.  “Would it give you a sense of redemption? After all of those people you killed?”

     “You keep saying that. How do you know about what they make me do? Why do you care about me killing people? It’s not my fault.“

     “Yes it is! You’re pretending. Because you’re too afraid of what the real world is like now. Your buddy, the Winter Soldier, is looking for a plan to get the hell out of here. And he’ll leave you in the dust unless you two work together.” That sure did make Steve stop talking. He questioned Tony with a stare. “I went to his room. He has a book filled with all kinds of shit. He’s actually pretty smart. I say you two connect, and we get the hell out of here.” Steve still didn’t talk. “Don’t get all shy now, I’m sorry I yelled at-”

     Oh. Now he knows why Steve’s being quiet. Steve’s facing him, staring at him. His expression didn’t change until Brock could see his face. And when Brock did see Steve’s face, Steve looked ahead, blank. “I thought it might be okay to let you two share a room. To give you a free punching bag. Bad idea, huh?” Brock said to Steve, and held onto him at the chin, wiggling the grip with a violent hand. “Don’t talk to him like he's listening.” He said to Tony.

     Tony looked down. Good. So Brock only heard the part that he said at the end. He didn’t hear Steve talking like he knew things that he shouldn’t know. Tony so badly wanted to rub it in Brock’s face and show that he was wrong, that Steve knew so much more than they all thought. That could wait until they were safe, though.

 

     “You aren’t allowed to come around this part of the base anymore.” A guard said to Tony, pushing him back at the chest. Tony stepped back and rolled his eyes.

     “Fine fine, alright. Fine.” He turned around, walking away. He cut at a corner, and put his back to the wall. He just needed like, a five minute conversation with Bucky.

     He’d have to cut some more corners to do that. The base was cut into two halves. Bucky was on one half, while Tony and Steve were on the other half. Tony and Steve would still gravitate to each other, but they weren’t allowed to sleep in the same barrack. Tony needed to get himself moved to the other half of the base. So he could see Bucky.  

     Creativity was something Tony liked to explore. More importantly, his own creativity. Especially with this situation. One day, maybe a week later, maybe five days (Tony had lost count), he caused the issue that’d get him moved.

     He kissed Steve. When they were getting food together, Tony pulled Steve into a kiss, and it broke apart because the guards in the cafeteria had been shouting at them both. “Why’d you do that?” Steve asked, lips parted in shock. “Why’d you just-”

     “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Brock asked when he was called in. He was sort of the person who kept Steve and Bucky in line. Now he was working on keeping Tony in line. “If you think you’re going to be acting that way the whole time you’re down here, then you better start thinking differently.” He snaps for a guard to come over, and the guard grabbed Tony by the arm. “Put him in the east wing. He won’t go barking up the Winter Soldier’s tree like that.” Brock looked back to Steve, who was in a daze. He was staring blankly, but usually he’d snap out of it when Brock looked at him. It was sort of a rule they had. But he didn’t, because his lips felt numb. Tony kissed him. 

     Then he realized why Tony kissed him. Oh. It wasn’t out of real affection. Tony wanted to get close to Bucky. To tie all of these strings together before HYDRA caught on. The kiss still felt nice, albeit it’s purpose.

 

     That night, Tony got used to his new room. It’s just as boring as his old one, but it was colder. His second room, the one that was on Steve’s side but still away from him, felt warmer for one reason. He’d hear Steve on the other side of the wall. Steve would mumble the words of the book he was reading when alone. Tony would fall asleep to the sound of Steve mumbling, the sound of that passing through the wall. That night, Tony didn’t sleep. He knew there were cameras, but there were less guards now. A lot of those people had lives outside of HYDRA. They were just taking up awful day jobs to make some extra money. It was all blood money, one way or another. So Tony didn’t trust it.

     He headed to Bucky’s barrack when he could, and slipped in through the door that he only opened a crack. Of course, Bucky was asleep. Tony shut the door, not making more than a whisper of a sound. It added up to be all the more shocking to Bucky when Tony shook him at the shoulder.

     With quick reflexes, Bucky woke up. He threw a fist, his metal fist, up at Tony. Tony backed away and listened to the arm, metal as it was, readjust. That was a horrifying sound. Then Bucky was okay. He saw Tony and sat up. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were in the west wing?”

     “East wing west wing, what’s the difference? Listen, I need to talk to you about a few things. But, keep your voice down, would you?” He looked at Bucky’s metal arm, and then noticed he had his back pressed to the wall from when he stepped away. “Did HYDRA make that?”

     “Is that what you want to talk to me about?”

     “No. You’re right.” Tony smiled. “I saw a few of the things you wrote down. Listen. If we work well together, which I’m hoping we do, we can get back to Steve, and then get out of here. Hopefully in one piece. Though, it’d be fun to redesign a new arm for you. Or for Steve. Actually no. Steve’s got amazing arms-”

     “Who’s Steve?”

     Shit. That’s something Tony forgot about.


	4. Chapter 4

     How could he explain who Steve was? 

     “You two were best friends. And then you ‘died.’ He ‘died’ after you. HYDRA found both of you, and fixed you up. Then you were put into freezers. Now you’re out and now you’re being used as weapons. Murderers. You two do the dirty work, and sometimes they get paid a whole lot of money.” Bucky seemed to be a good listener. Tony kept talking for that reason, and that reason alone. If Bucky didn’t look intrigued at all, Tony would be intimidated for sure. “He doesn’t remember you either. Basically, HYDRA purposely kept you two from remembering each other. Remembering each other would make it so easy to get out of here, that they’d have no chance in stopping you."

     The last words made Bucky perk up. “There’s no chance in getting out.”

     “Of course there is.”

     “You haven’t even been here for a month. I’ve been here for years. The only way of getting out of this is by hiding. I know who you are, too.”

     “You do?” Yeah. Now Tony felt intimidated. 

     “I know you enough to understand you can’t just go off the radar.”

     “But, Steve and you can go off the radar. Everyone will keep thinking you’re dead.”

     “You’d be left here.”

     “I could get used to it.” He hadn’t thought about it that way. Letting Steve and Bucky get out and away safely, then staying under HYDRA’s control himself. It’d be a hero move, a sappy hero move. But, it’d work. It was true, anywhere he went he’d be ratted out because HYDRA would put one hell of a bounty out for him...so he was stuck. But, the world believed that Bucky and Steve were dead. Why not let them live a happy life?

     “How will I talk to Steve?” Bucky asked, because they were standing together in silence for what felt like hours at that point. It had only been minutes. Bucky was groggy as he stood, sleepy.

     “I’ll figure it out. We should figure out a plan to get you two connected, and then out of here.” And just like that, Tony began counting himself out of this idea about leaving. 

 

     There was a long corridor, and a stairwell that ended it, between the east and west wing. In the middle was an elevator. The base was two floors underground, and then there was a discrete lobby on the surface. The following morning, Tony slipped past a guard to get to the elevator. And just before the doors started to close, Steve got on it with him. “You got my message?”

     “You were pretty clear about it.” The elevator was made for three people at most. So they were standing quite close as the doors shut. Tony pressed the emergency stop button. They had maybe fifteen minutes now. 

     “Good. I wrote it so you could understand it.”

     “What’s that supposed to mean?”

     They smile at each other. Well, Tony gave an ‘oh, honey’ smile, and Steve returned it with a ‘shut the hell up’ smile.

     Tony slipped one of the looser, younger guards a note, and promised him tons of money when Tony was out. What Tony didn’t tell the guard is that he planned on not getting out with Bucky and Steve. He doesn’t even know if he’s going to tell Steve about that yet. 

     Luckily, the note got to Steve and not they had time to talk. Limited time, but it was still time. 

     “Bucky and I will deal with the guards on our side, and when we head over here, we’ll probably have Brock trailing behind. With a shit ton of people. We’re gonna need you on your A-game, especially if Brock has you at his side. Don’t attack him until we’ve got a clear sign of the path out of here. We’ll use a guard if we have to, to tell us where to go.” The plan almost, just almost, sounded foolproof.

     One question came to mind, and Steve wasn’t leaving the elevator until he knew the answer. “Where do we go when we’re out?”

     “That’s to be decided.” Tony claimed, and he flinched when an alarm went off. What it meant didn’t scare him, but the sound and suddenness scared him. Enough to have Steve put a hand on his shoulder. 

     “Tony, we need to figure out where we’re going.”

     “I know. I’ll figure it out. Until then, just act casual. Here.” Tony moved in close so their chests touched. It made things look more...steamy in the elevator. 

     “What? Are you going to kiss me again?”

     “Do you want me to?”

     The doors open. The scene that Tony laid out made it look like this was just a Romeo and Juliet moment, where they felt forbidden from seeing each other. So they’d go to any cost to see one another. Luckily neither of them had killed themselves. That’d be a shame.

     Of course, they weren’t let off the hook for that. That was when Tony believed Steve about the checking up. Tony definitely was ‘checked up’ on. Except, Bucky was the one who beat it into him. He switched off his commuter when Brock was out of the room. Then he punched Tony to let the noise of beating fool Brock. Tony stumbled back a little bit.

     “What happened?” Bucky asked. 

     “We’ve got a plan set up. We just need to go through with it. And we need to be quick about it.” Tony raised a hand when Bucky raised his. “Don’t hit me again. Tell him we’re done here.”

 

     On Steve’s end, things weren’t going so good. Instead of being ‘checked up’ on, he was forced to sit down. Never a good thing, here. Steve looked around, and knew what was going on. The machine that basically made him useless as a person. It made him useful as a weapon. This wasn’t good, it’d set them far back in the plan. And Steve was beginning to like the idea of leaving this place. 

     “Is it gonna hurt for you to forget all about Tony?” Brock asked Steve, when seeing Steve fight against the hands. The hands attempting to guide his arms to metal cuffs. 

     “Fuck you, Rumlow.” 

     The room went quiet then, and Steve lost track of it. Because he felt his wrists bound by the metal cuffs, and then his ankles. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t fight his way from the machine’s grip. “How long have you known who I am?” Brock asked, this time not making the question sound rhetorical.

     “Does it matter?”

     “You remember who you are, don’t you?”

     Steve chose not to answer that, and instead broke one of the wrist cuffs with his own strength. He’d never done that before. Now that the cat was out of the bag, though, he wasn’t hiding the retaliation. Now would be a great time for the other two to help. Except, Brock wasn’t following them. He was right here with Steve. Just a little change in the plan. 

     Then Steve used his free hand to form a fist, and clock one of the doctors in the face when they attempted to give him a shot of tranquilizer. 

     When Tony and Bucky sound the alarms, everything went haywire. Steve got out of the chair fully, and rushed for the door. It didn’t take much for him to meet the other two at the elevator. Which was even more cramped that time. Tony and Steve were chest to chest, while Bucky stood staring at them. “You two don’t really know each other, right. I forgot. Steve, this is Bucky. Bucky, this is Steve. You two are something like best friends.”

      “Best friends that are enforced as assassins.” Steve complied.

     “Exactly.” Tony smiled. 

     “When these doors open, we won’t be alone anymore.” Bucky advised. “What will we do?”   
     “You two run and I’ll keep them distracted.” Tony said. There it was. He said it, and Steve heard it. As he predicted, Steve didn’t like the sound of it. 

     “That’s not-”

     “I have nowhere on earth to hide. And unless you want to live in space somewhere with me, then this is how you two will get out. Because really? I’ve only been here for two weeks. You two have been here for too long.” Tony was stubborn, and Steve had learned quite a bit about that in the last two weeks.

     Not more than a few seconds after that, the elevator doors open with a horrid sound, and they’re faced by dozens of guards. Steve’s absolutely sure he can take all of them down, but Tony’s pushing at his back as soon as their out of the elevator. “We can come back for him.” Bucky said to Steve when they’re running. Without Tony. Bucky isn’t sure if what he said was true, but he needed to say something that would keep Steve running with him. 

     Steve took one last glance at the entrance of the base from afar. They’re off in the forest to the left of the base, far enough to lose the guards.

     Even if Bucky thought what he said to Steve wasn’t likely, Steve would still go through with the idea.


	5. Chapter 5

“Do you think we can go back for him?” Steve asked as Bucky and him walk together. They walked on the side of an old dirt road, away from the forest. They had been out of the forest for awhile. It was safe to say that they were in the clear. 

“I don’t know.”

“You said we-”

“I know. But listen. You can’t be talking like that when we’re back in civilization, okay? Unless you wanna be brought right back to that hell. Because if they put high enough of a bounty on us, then anyone’ll turn us in.” Steve looked away from Bucky and shook his head. He didn’t like what Bucky was saying. “I’m sure once things dial down, and we’re back on our feet, we can help him out.” 

“I don’t want him to stay there. Not even for a day.”

“Just keep your cool, okay? We can talk about it later.” That time he got a nod from Steve. Steve nodded until they saw a car, far off in the distance. “Here.” Bucky said as he took off his jacket and handed it to Steve. Steve was in his Hydra suit, so he covered it up by zipping the jacket to his neck. The car was a four wheeler pickup truck. 

“What do we do?”

“We act like normal people.” Bucky looked at Steve, then put both hands in his jean pockets to hide his metal hand. Good thing he was layered with a long sleeve under that jacket, too.   
That’s exactly what they did. When the truck began to slow down as it passed the duo, the window of the passenger door rolled down. Bucky glanced from in front of him to see the man driving. A dark skinned man with a little bit of facial hair. 

“Well, this isn’t suspicious at all.” The stranger in the truck stated, and smiled. He got a smile from Bucky and Steve. Steve was running wild with nervous thoughts at those words. When their smiles left and all that occupied the sound around them was the engine whirring, the stranger spoke again. “Alright,” he sighed. “Get in. Where are you headed?”

Steve and Bucky both gave him a confused look. “What? It’s almost one hundred degrees and you’re out here walking in the middle of nowhere. You two look like you’ve been inside for fifty years, too.” He smiled. “Come on. I don’t bite.”

Bucky looked back and saw how Steve was clearly accepting the offer with a nod. It took Bucky a few more seconds to finally agree. He got into the back of the truck, and Steve got the front seat. 

Luckily, the music in the truck was a bit loud. So Bucky could whisper to Steve with his chin on Steve’s right shoulder. “I’m not sure about this guy. That door’s unlocked, right? We might need to tuck and roll at some point.” 

“Just keep your cool.” Steve looked at Bucky, and gave a snide grin. “Okay?” Bucky kicked at the back of his seat to that, and then sat back, crossing his arms.

“What’s your name, anyways?” Bucky asked. 

“Sam.”

“I’m Steve.” Bucky only breathed. “And that’s Bucky.”

“Yeah great going. Tell him our names. Now how about we tell him where we live? What our hopes and dreams are?” Bucky kicked at Steve’s seat again, and Steve looked back at him momentarily. Though Sam, as they just learned, laughed at them both.

“Are you one of those superstitions?” Sam asked Bucky, and all he got was a stare. “You know what I mean. A conspiracy theorist?”

“A what?” Steve asked. “I think you can get arrested for being that. That’s not what Bucky is.”

“You can get arrested for conspiracy, Steve. But it’s a different thing.” Bucky added in. 

“Are you sure we’re best friends?” Steve asked, and just as he was going to say more, he realized what he said. He shut his mouth and looked ahead again after Bucky shot him a glare. Steve sat back in his seat and looked at the door beside him. It was unlocked, just as Bucky preferred. 

“What the hell did I just welcome into my car.” Sam said with a long breath.

“Yeah, you can go ahead and let us out at the next stop sign.” Bucky mumbled, but spoke loud enough so that Sam could hear him over the music. 

“Okay. But I don’t think you should go back to that Hydra base. Didn’t you just leave?” Even if it didn’t really, the car felt like it stopped for both Steve and Bucky. 

Neither of the soldiers had words for Sam. It was very clear what he just told them. That he knew about Hydra, and more importantly, about what Hydra did to them. “I’m not gonna hurt you guys. I was actually sent here to help. It’s my job.”

“So you’re getting paid to make us nervous?” Bucky nodded. “Great.” 

“I’m getting paid to make sure you two are protected from Hydra.” 

“Tony’s stuck back there.” Steve put in, and he saw Sam look at him. The road was long, seemingly endless. He didn’t need to look with all of his focus devoted. 

“Tony Stark.” Sam looked to see the nod Steve gave. “Huh. Why do people keep going for him for hostage situations?” Ignorant, Steve just gave a polite shrug. Because he didn’t know what Sam was referring to. “We’ll get him out, too.” 

 

Speaking of. At the same time that conversation was going on, Tony was thrown to the floor of the base. The cold, cement floor. His head bounced off of his due to his unreadiness, and so his nose was beginning to hurt like hell. No doubt it would be bleeding within the following minutes. “You knew about this?” Brock asked as Tony got back to his feet. “But look, they left you. How fucking stupid do you feel now?”

“I don’t feel stupid. I’m actually quite smart.” Tony smiled a little. As much he could without hurting the part of his nose that hit the floor. 

“What makes you say that?”

“They’re out there, free from you awful people. And I bet they’re figuring out a way to take you down completely.” Tony paused. “Or, they’re never going to think about me again. In which case, I’m fucked. But hey, I just wanted to to something nice for the hot captain.”

“Then I guess we’re moving on with you.” Brock stepped away from Tony, and instead, another guard grabbed Tony at the biceps from behind. He looked at Brock, waiting. “Take him to the surveillance room.” 

Whatever the surveillance room was, Tony didn’t like it. Not even the sound of it. Just hearing it made his skin crawl with nervous intuition. But he knew Brock only wanted him to be afraid, so he did nothing to show fear as he was taken away. All he did was hope, in his head, that Steve and Bucky were at least trying to get in a position to help him. 

He really, really wished Steve was trying to come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short one! The next will be long, and within the next week. Follow me on tumblr? I need more mutuals (: @drookes


	6. Chapter 6

“Do you really think this is safe?” Bucky asked as Steve and him were left alone. Bucky seemed paranoid, suspicious that they weren’t really alone. Suspicious someone was listening, or watching. Maybe Sam, maybe Sam’s boss. Whoever would be listening, he was afraid of them. “We just spilled it all to some random ass guy, who could or couldn’t be truly on our side.”

 

Simply enough, Steve responded in seconds. “He said they could go back for Tony.” Steve was wrapping his knuckles in bandages as he stood at the counter. A granite top island in the kitchen. Sam had a nice duplex. He was out getting a few groceries to keep Steve and Bucky satisfied. When honestly, any food would. They’d been living off of Hydra rations for so long, anyways. It’d be better, maybe, to have less groceries so they didn’t go too crazy with the sudden expansion on selection.

 

“Why is that  _ all  _ you care about? You’ve known Tony for two weeks. We were stuck there for seventy years. Frozen for a hell of a lot of that time, but still trapped.” It was true, Steve should’ve recognized that they were lucky to have gotten out of there. 

 

Though, he couldn’t let up on Tony, and the thought of him...the thought of him being stuck there. Definitely not the thought of maybe getting to kiss him again. Steve was, obviously not, thinking about that. He nodded though, to Bucky, and then looked over his shoulder a bit to catch the other man’s gaze. “Nobody deserves to go through what we went through.”

 

It had already been about half an hour since Sam left, and he was only headed to a corner shop. It made sense that he was already back. He walked back in with a couple of bags, and looked at Bucky first when in the kitchen. Bucky rolled his eyes to himself, and then crossed his arms over his chest. No words came from him. Steve did the talking. “Thank you, Sam. We can’t begin to thank you enough.” 

 

“You don’t have to thank me.” Sam laughed before saying that, and shrugged. “Like I said, it’s my job.” He pointed a finger. “Which reminds me. You two will stay here for a couple of days, and when we’re ready, we can help you out with finding someplace else to stay.”

 

“Yeah. Okay. Who is we?” Bucky piped into the conversation, and walked over to stand by Steve. His arms were still crossed and he looked a bit judgemental. “We’re not doing anything here until we find that out.”

 

“I’m not tryna get fired, Barnes--”

 

“Don’t call me Barnes.”

 

“ _ But,  _ it’s just a government deal that’ll keep you safe, for sure.”

 

Steve listened, then looked at Sam with wonder. “Are you going to help Tony?”

 

“Yeah, we are, but we’ve gotta-”

 

“I want to come.”

 

“Jesus, you two need to learn about not interrupting people.” Sam sighed after saying that, and he saw Bucky smile. Weird. He’d only gotten weird little glares and blank stares up until then.

 

The smile was snide, but it was a smile. That was good, right? “We don’t interrupt everyone, just you.”

 

“Why me?”

 

“Because you let us.” Bucky answered, and it was a sad answer. For so long, Steve nor him were allowed to do things like harmlessly interrupt someone when they were talking. Which brought up another thing for Sam.

 

“Do you know if they ever put trackers in you two?” He watched Steve and Bucky both look at themselves, at their own arms and down to their legs. “Like, inside of you, under your skin.” He corrected himself, to let them have more context. Bucky nodded, and looked at his arm.

 

“In here, a long time back. Probably when they made the thing. A vintage radar, isn’t that somethin’?” Bucky asked, tapping at the metal of his arm with his flesh knuckle. “I don’t think they ever chipped Steve. He was always their golden boy, they programmed him more strictly. Made it  _ impossible  _ for him to find loopholes, and become self aware.”

 

“And how well did that work out for them?” Steve smiled, and saw Bucky hold his hand up. They high fived. Of course they high fived. It was the first moment in such a long time where they felt like real friends, instead of two people who didn’t remember such a friendship. 

 

After that, Sam didn't say much else to them. He let them eat, and they really ate a lot. A whole lot. “Did they not feed you?” Sam joked when he joined them back in the living room where Bucky and Steve sat, eating their second helpings like it was their first. 

 

“Yeah they fed us.” Steve said. “But it wasn’t good stuff. It was small portions of flavorless brands.”

 

That made sense. Sam, again, didn’t speak to them much more. They didn’t seem to want to talk. It was reasonable for them not to want to sit there and talk to anyone but each other. They talked to each other, that was another point to add in. They weren’t talking loud to each other, they were speaking to each other in conversational mumbles as they sat together.

  
  


Tony had the right idea, being afraid of that room. Where they did all of those tests on him and poked all around his reactor. He was afraid that one poke too far would come along, and it’d be lights out after that. Luckily, he was sitting in bed just a couple of hours after that. He had been reading Bucky’s journal, which was left behind. When Brock’s harsh footsteps were heard all the way down the hall, Tony put the journal beneath his pillow, and waited silently. 

 

“What you’re going to do is simple.” Brock opened the conversation with. Tony listened, and waited. He didn’t want to talk, not after all of that. He wasn’t scared to talk, he was just tired. “Get into contact with Steve, then set him up. From there we can snatch him back easily.”

 

“Yeah, I’m not doing that.” Tony said almost immediately after. 

 

“That’s just the way to get him back here. If we don’t get him back here, we’re going to have him killed.” Brock threatened with his tone. He listened to Tony laugh and felt a sudden rush of anger. Tony took the hit that came to him, and he looked up to Brock, persistent. 

 

“You’re bluffing, I know you are. You wouldn’t kill him, because you can’t do anything for yourself. Those two were your weapons, and without them, you’re all just nothing. Helpless.”

 

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Brock pointed at Tony, and walked away. Tony looked ahead, and then blanked for a moment. He only came back to thought when Brock continued to speak, explaining how he was wrong. “You’re our weapon now. Get dressed, you’re doing this whether you want to or not.”

 

In that moment, Tony tasted the blood in his mouth, and reluctantly stood up. Looks like he was going out for a bit.

  
  


It was a little weird to see the sun after being underground for that length of time. Especially the sun rising. Tony couldn’t imagine what it was like for Steve and Bucky, to really be out and about after so long, without a metaphorical, brainwash of a leash hooked onto them. He hoped Steve was okay...Bucky too, but mainly Steve to rest his case. Tony squinted as they stood in an open field. An open field with a few daisies and a ton of weeds, rung around by a thin line of forest. Nothing pretty.

 

He had a sweatshirt on with some lounge pants. Nothing fancy. With his hands in his pockets, Tony spoke to the two random guards he was sent with. “You two might not know this, but Steve’s not a fucking idiot. So you might wanna hide out before he gets here. Or he won’t even come close. Or, better yet, he’ll come close and snap your necks.” Tony hoped that was the plan Steve would go with. He actually just hoped Steve saw his text message. Or- he hoped Steve didn’t? He didn’t know what he wanted at that point, while the sun rose on the far off horizon.

 

The text was sent through the phone that Steve gave him one of those nights, after they were separated in the base. They were track phones, old phones that only texted and called. Steve and him would text each other all night long, even if the cell service was absolutely awful underground. Tony sat on the top bunk just to get two bars.

 

Yeah, though, Steve got the text from Tony. It was late the night after they escaped. He was sleeping in the same room as Bucky, since there was only one guest room. Though he had a couple of couch cushions from the living room up there to make it more comfortable. He was the right amount of comfy, not too much and not too little. It seemed like Sam couldn’t get Steve and Bucky to sleep in different rooms. It was sweet, really. Either that, or sad, because they might have been too afraid to sleep in different rooms.

 

Steve woke up when the phone beeped a few times with texts from Tony. He sat up slowly, just to the halfway mark, and opened the phone to see the messages. It was an address, and then the second one said ‘meet me here, please.’ 

 

The please was enough to make Steve do anything. Undoubtedly, he sat up all of the way. Tony needed him there, and not for a second did he think it through and understand that it was most likely a trap. He got up and looked at Bucky who was sound asleep on the bed. Before deciding to leave him and head out on his own, Bucky woke up from the movement around him. He looked up at Steve, with sleepy eyes, and a dull expression. “What are you doing, Steve?” He had a tiny slur in his words. 

 

Steve sat on the edge of the bed, and opened the phone. Then, he pulled the texts up and showed Bucky each of them. They then stared at each other, and Bucky took the phone. In a brief moment, he used his metal hand to crush it in, breaking it into two halves. Steve tried to get his fist to unwind but there was no hope. He slapped Bucky lightly upside the head. “What’s the matter with you?” 

 

“It was a trap, Steve. Hydra was trying to lead you right back into their path. Odds are they found the phone and saw you were the only number saved. What if they had a tracker in that? Huh?” Bucky stopped speaking, and saw the way Steve sat back in a slow motion. Then he watched Steve stand up. “We can’t go to that address, alright? At least not now, we can wait until tomorrow, and go with Sam. We can’t just jump the gun like this.” He tried to rationalize, but Steve wasn’t seeming to buy it. Bucky dropped the phone halves onto the floor, and looked down at his arm as it hissed, then readjusted. 

 

“Why don’t we wake him up now and go? What if they aren’t there tomorrow morning?” 

 

There was no arguing, or changing of Steve’s mind going down. So, Bucky sighed. “Fine.”

 

Sam wasn’t too happy to be woken up at that hour. After they told him everything, and they all got ready, the sun was beginning to rise. Steve looked out of the window in the living room, and then glanced back to Bucky, who was staring with his arms crossed over his chest. “Why do you care about him so much?” 

 

A difficult question for Steve to answer, especially when he stood in uniform, with his shield in grip. His shield that was altered to fit the Hydra colors rather than the United States colors. “I already told you.”

 

“I know this isn’t just about your bullshit morals, Rogers. Why do you care so much about Tony?”

 

Sam was out getting the car ready, he provided the weapons and all that. He was really doing a lot of good for Steve and Bucky, no matter how pissed he was about being up so early. Needless to say though, Steve took awhile to respond. When he did, he held onto his shield a bit tighter, and shrugged. “He treats me like he understands me. He doesn’t pity me, or see me as a weapon. He talks to me, and looks at me, like nobody else. Like he cares, he treats me like he cares.”

 

“What if he doesn’t really care?”

 

“He cared enough to let us go without him. He saved our asses, and that’s enough for me.”

 

“Alright you two,” Sam interjected because he was back inside. Steve looked over to him, and nodded when Sam said one other thing. “Let’s get this show on the road.”


	7. Chapter 7

“I don’t think we have the time.” Bucky answered Steve as they sat in the truck. Bucky was in the back again. “Why do I keep getting put in the back seat, anyways.” 

 

“Because you’re younger.” Steve smiled. “I don’t see why we can’t stop and get a paint job. I don’t like the black.” He said about the shield, missing the blue part, that was black since Hydra had control of it.

 

“What? This guy’s younger.” Bucky motioned to Sam from the back.

 

“You can’t drive a pick up truck.” Sam was smiling now too and Bucky just sat back with a huff of a breath.

 

“Just drive faster.” Bucky added on instead of biting back. In the back of the truck, he smiled a little and tilted his head to face out of the window. Steve saw from the side mirror. It was a nice sight, Bucky smiling. Even if Bucky didn’t want him to see such a thing.

 

They parked quite far from the address. Sam had a hood over the bed of the truck, and he unpacked metal-made wings from there when they were parked. “What the hell are those things?” Bucky asked, Steve turned from where he was keeping a lookout, and saw as Sam latched the equipment onto his upper torso. “Are those wings?” Bucky asked when he just got a stare. “What is your job, anyways?”

 

“I used to be a soldier, like you two.” Sam said, picking up a handgun from the bed of the truck. He then pocketed a few remote controls, and put on some sort of glass watch. A tech watch that Steve nor Bucky understood. They didn’t know a lot of technology specifics. Steve thought of himself as silly when he had a few conversations with Tony about it. Tony said it was cute though. He thought it was cute when Steve didn’t know how to save a new contact, or send a text, or even take a photograph (a shitty flip phone photograph). When they were first sending texts; while sitting together on the bed, Tony couldn’t stop laughing as Steve kept complaining that the buttons were too small.

 

Steve couldn’t think about Tony anymore, not as they got ready to potentially save him, or face Hydra in a fight. “You two need a gun?” Sam asked, and then got a laugh from both of the super soldiers. He looked a little confused, and Bucky shrugged. 

 

“We don’t need guns, no.” Steve answered, and shortly after that, they headed to the correct address. An emptied field with nothing special to it. Nothing special but Tony, standing in the middle, with his hands in his pockets. The sun was in the sky, not high enough to shine on them yet. The sky was a collective amount of purples, and faded blues. The lighting made Tony look...very nice, even from such a distance. Steve, Sam and Bucky hid in the thin line of forest surrounding the field, at different spots. 

  
First speaking into the commuter, Steve leaned against a tree and held his shield with one hand, and pressed the other against the bark. “He’s probably not alone-”

 

“You don’t think so?” Bucky’s voice came in, sarcasm leaking into his tone. 

 

After rolling his eyes, Steve continued. “One of us should go and confront him. The other two, watch our backs.”

 

“Our backs? So basically, you’re gonna go talk to Tony, not ‘one of us.’” Bucky couldn’t see Steve well enough from across the field, and in the trees, but he’s sure that got a smile out of the guy. “Go on, we’ve got your back.” He affirmed.

 

It felt like forever, heading into the middle of the field to Tony. Tony stepped away from Steve when Steve got within a few feet. There was no ‘hi’ or ‘I’m glad to see you.’

 

“Are you alone?” Tony asked Steve, voice soft. Almost like he was trying to keep it from being picked up on a commuter. 

 

“No. Are you?” Tony shook his head when Steve asked that, and then stepped back ahead. “Is Bucky with you?” Steve nodded. “Who else?” He didn’t get an answer. “I saw that your phone was deactivated. What happened?”

 

“Bucky broke it in half.” Steve smiled and looked down when Tony held his phone in his hands. He showed Steve the text, one he’d sent, an hour or so after ‘he’ sent the first two. ‘It’s a trap. Don’t come.’ 

 

There was a moment of silence between them, and they spent that moment staring at each other. Steve noticed the crystal structure of Tony’s eyes looked nice in the cool sunrise lighting. His hair, dark as it was, was a mess and looked a little dirty. They were probably treating Tony bad now that Steve and Bucky were gone, and Steve picked up on that. He picked up on that after noticing the bruise on the bridge of Tony’s nose, and the ring of dried blood at his nostril.  “Why’d you come here, Steve?” Tony asked, shameful. He shook his head after saying it, asking it, whatever. 

 

He might have wanted an answer, but Steve wasn’t going to give one to him. Instead, he took Tony by the wrist, and before he could start walking, Tony pulled the grip away. “You have to leave. Seriously.” He whispered that and then took the few steps back again. “Leave.” He repeated, sounding a little more urgent that time.

 

“What’s going on out there, Rogers?” Bucky asked through the commuter. Through the commuter, just seconds after, gunshots were heard, and Sam checked in.

“Intact. Bucky’s under fire.” Sam’s voice came in clear, and Steve, subconsciously, uses his shield to hold against Tony’s back. To do this, he held Tony around the waist, against him. A few bullets ricocheted off the shield’s metal, and Tony felt the vibration from it on his back. He looked at Steve and kept close momentarily. He didn’t seem to want to move away. He had to though, when Steve was pulling him off and they were running to the opposite side of the field. “Ohhhh yeah, sure. I’ve got it all under control.” Sam came through the commuter again. “It’s too early for this shit.” Steve listened to him, and then stopped in the forest line with Tony.

 

“No weapons, huh?” Steve asked, and saw Tony shake his head. “And no suit?” He got a wild look. “It was a shot in the dark.” He jokingly smiled, and then looked across the field again. “Here.” He took the commuter from his ear, and put it, securely, into Tony’s ear. In that moment, Steve kept his hand on Tony’s cheek, and he lost the smile slowly. 

 

“Go and help him.” Tony said when Steve looked at him in such a..different way. He nudged Steve to the side to get him to go. He listened to Sam give him directions to the truck from there. It didn’t take long for him to find it. He laid down in the back seat, and listened to the commuter almost religiously. 

 

To say that Bucky was just under fire was an understatement. He had a handful of Hydra guards on him, at least five. None of them were standing just moments after Steve helped them out. Sam landed back on the ground, and Bucky stepped to the side. He saw the way Sam put his handgun in the belt holster and sort of got lost in the moment. Good thing there weren’t anymore guards on them though. “You’re hit?” Sam asked Bucky, who was clutching at his abdomen with a light, somewhat careless hold. 

 

“I’ve had worse.” He was the one to begin the walk back to the truck. “Come on, before more of those goons follow.” Back at the truck, Bucky pulled the seat back to get in, and before he got in he realized that Tony was laying there. So, he couldn’t get in. He just looked at Tony and then to Steve. “Now you wanna sit in the back?” He laughed. “Whatever.” He watched Steve fully get in the back when Tony was sat up. 

 

When Steve looked at Tony, he saw that Tony was already staring back. “Are you okay?” Steve asked, and smiled. “You haven’t spoken much.” 

 

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” He mumbled and leaned against Steve’s side. “Not right now, at least.” His voice became softer as he cuddled into Steve’s body and closed his eyes. “Take this fucking suit off as soon as possible.” He spoke about the Hydra suit, red and black, that sits on Steve’s body. 


	8. Chapter 8

There wasn’t too much of an aftermath at first. Tony looked around Sam’s place with curious eyes, and Sam boasted with the “it might not be what you’re used to” statement. The statement made Tony look at him, and then smile.

 

“I was in an underground terrorist base for two and a half weeks.”

 

“Wouldn’t be the first time you were being held by terrorists, right?” Steve and Bucky shared a glance, and when Tony passed over what Sam said, Bucky spoke.

 

“I don’t want to alarm any of you, but I’m bleeding pretty bad right now.” He spoke clearly, and Steve looked a little lost with what to do. 

 

“I’ve got it.” Sam said, and walked with Bucky down the hallway. He stopped them at the bathroom and Bucky sat on the sink counter so that Sam could have a better aim at working on the abdominal area. Bucky had his shirt off and held it in his metal hand as Sam worked on the wound. “You don’t seem to care that I’m taking a bullet out of your body right now.” He said, quietly.

 

“You get used to it.”

 

“Pain?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“That’s a little fucked up.” Sam looked at Bucky, and smiled just a little bit. He had gotten the bullet out at that point, and was working on clearing the area around of blood. He worked on getting a few stitched in after that.  “What did they do to you?”

 

That was a very vague question, in Bucky’s opinion. What did Hydra do to him? What didn’t Hydra do to him? That question would’ve been easier to answer. The best answer he could give to Sam was: “A lot of things.” He saw, with how Sam looked at him, that he asked the question to understand more. “They took me first. I fell, lost my arm. They told me I was  _ lucky,  _ and I believed them. Until they did it the first time. They made me forget half of who I was, and then they used these words. These words that made me unconscious. Unconscious without...being unconscious.”

 

Confusing, sure. Sam seemed to get it though. He put in the last stitch and that made Bucky jerk a little. So he mumbled an apology, and Bucky just smiled. It wasn’t normal to see someone like Bucky smile, but Sam liked the sight. He stood up normally, and looked down at the wound. To finish the process off, he was wiping off excess blood, patching it up. “What did they make you forget?”

 

“Almost everything. They could’ve wiped my entire brain, and they could’ve left me with no way of knowing how to be a human.” They didn’t, though. Hydra knew exactly what they were doing, and they also knew how to do it. Those two factors together made the situation all the more real feeling. “They made me forget about Steve. They didn’t do that until they got Steve under too. We didn’t have a say in things. If we wanted to have a say in things, we’d be ‘punished.’ Yeah, that sounds as bad as it was, it was probably even worse than it sounds.”

 

“Okay.” Sam said and looked at Bucky, shaking his head. “If you don’t want to continue, you don’t have to. I just wanted to get an idea.” During the process, Bucky had his legs spread enough to let Sam work on the wound without his knees in the way. Evidently, Sam was still standing between Bucky’s legs, and all they were doing at looking at each other.

 

“Well, I’ve never told anyone.”

 

“Because you haven’t been able to.”

 

“Kind of? I don’t see myself telling everyone about what happened. I don’t even know if I understand what happened myself.” 

 

For a second, Sam wondered in silence. When he spoke again, he was packing up the first aid kit neatly. After he washed the blood away of course. “Do you feel like you’re still affected by what they did? Or, that you’ll be going back there?”

 

“I know there’s a chance of us going back..having to go back. If they just say the words, then we’re their’s again. And if they say those words with people like Tony, or you, around, then you’re fucked. Because if they tell us what to do when we’re under, we’ll do it. Unconditionally. And I don’t think that Tony would try and fight Steve. I think they’re..”

 

“Yeah.” Sam smiled. “Yeah it’s okay, I know.” His smile drops when Bucky looked a little solemn. “What is it?”

 

“I’m supposed to be best friends with that guy.” Bucky shrugged. “And I barely even know him.” Sam stepped back and latched the kit.

 

When they walked back out of the bathroom, Bucky had a little bit of a hunch in his stance. Which was reasonable, considering he had a bullet wound to let heal up. Steve had already changed. Into some of the clothing Sam had for them. Sweats an a loose shirt. Tony was still in the outfit they had him in, and he looked quite tired as they sat together. 

 

“Okay, Sam.” Steve said, sitting up when Bucky sat at his other side. He was sort of laying back with Tony leaning on him that way. Comfortable, but he had things to talk about. “What’s going to happen with us?” He spoke about Bucky and him, anyways. He knew Tony could go back to normal for the most part.

 

“I’ll call my boss in.” Sam said. “We can talk about it then, what you two can do.” He saw the way Bucky and Steve shared a look, and Tony nodded. He seemed to know exactly who Sam was talking about.

 

“I need to take a nap.” Bucky sighed out when he sat back, and put a hand on his abdomen. His eyes closed and he tilted his head back. It seemed like there was no chance in convincing him to open them back up for awhile. Steve felt Tony’s hand on his knee, and looked over to him with a dearing smile. 

 

“I never figured out where we are.” Steve said in that moment and Sam laughed, seeing the way Tony grinned.

 

“You’re in California. Those guys had you in a bunker out in the desert. An underground base.”

“Really?” Steve asked with a bit of quip in his tone. He kept the smile. “I’d never been to California.”    
  
As he said that, Tony had to mentally note how cute it was because he didn’t want to freak Steve out. Steve did look around and wonder why Sam and Tony had been laughing at him though. Bucky had already been in a light, easy to be awoken, slumber. 

 

They waited like that, for Sam’s boss. As time passed, Steve talked to Tony about a few things that were new. A lot of things were new for Steve, civilization wise, but he wasn’t able to learn it all in the span of just a few hours. It took a few hours for Sam’s boss to actually get there. When the thud of a car door shutting had been heard from outside, Steve nudged Bucky to wake him up and they were attentive to the ‘boss.’

 

“Hi, boys.” called the boss. A somewhat short woman with fiery red hair down to her shoulders. She was decked in all black and had a holster with a pistol to her belt. Seemingly ready for combat. “I guess I didn’t believe in you, Wilson. You really did have this under control.” She teased and Sam nodded. The grin she had went away when she saw the third person on the couch. “Stark.” She greeted haphazardly. Tony stood up, and offered his hand. They shook hands and it turned into somewhat of a hug. 

 

“Yeah, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it?” Tony asked, and then looked back to Steve. 

 

“Hydra wanted a piece of you this time, huh?” 

 

“Well, it could’ve been worse. Two weeks isn’t as bad as two months, right?” Their little conversation was interrupted when Bucky stood up.

 

“I thought you said you’re boss was coming?” Bucky asked and Steve got to his feet, putting a hand to Bucky’s shoulder in a bit of knowingness. 

 

“This  _ is  _ my boss.”

 

“She’s a woman.”

 

“I am a woman.” Natasha laughed. She understood Bucky’s place of mind, where he was coming from. Bucky seemed a little confused at that point, and his face showed that emotion. “It’s alright, Sergeant Barnes. I know you aren’t used to everything in the _ new age _ just yet. I promise you two will be kept safe from here on out, though. We’ll protect you.” 

 

About that. Steve nodded. “How will you do that?”

 

“By keeping an eye on you, making sure things are going alright. Sam and maybe a few others will be stationed to be with you.” Natasha nodded slowly to herself. “We didn’t have the time to plan a lot of the details, but we do know that you two are staying here for the time being, in California.” She glanced to Tony. “And Mr. Stark, you can use the commuter out in the car to hitch a ride.”

 

Well, that was something that Tony didn’t want to hear. He was standing by Steve, a little too close for normal comfort, for acquaintances. Which is why Natasha was beginning to think that they weren’t just acquaintances. Though it wasn’t her business. She wouldn’t ask about it, not in front of both of them, at least. “I think I’m gonna stick around with Steve.” Tony said.

 

“No. It’d be better for the both of you if you went back to New York.” She advised, and saw Steve’s face light up.

 

“New York? What part? I want to go there, with you.” He said to Tony.

 

“Okay first of all, not Brooklyn, that’s for sure.” He corrected Steve’s train of thought. His father had raised him talking about ‘Captain America.’ Tony knew a lot, and along with all of those things he knew that Steve called Brooklyn home, of all places. 

 

Steve didn’t like that response though. “What’s wrong with-”

 

“Steve, you’re not going to Brooklyn. You’re not going to be anywhere where Hydra can just snatch you like it’s nothing.” Sam said to Steve to try and keep the conversation from spiralling into some weird argument.

 

“So you’re keeping us just miles away from where we were being held for so long? Smart.” Bucky nodded, arms crossed over his chest. He got a look from Sam, and Bucky just shrugged. “Look, if Steve wants to be with Tony, then let him. Tony-fucking-Stark can keep them both safe, with all of the money he has alone.”

 

“Oh really? Then why is he such an easy target for terrorists and hostages?” Sam contradicted.

 

So much for keeping things from spiralling. Tony laughed and then looked at Steve. Who looked quite confused at that comment. “I’ll have to tell you about it later. Long story. It’s a long story.” He got a smile from Steve in return.

 

“Spare me the details.” Steve put a hand to Tony’s shoulder from where he stood somewhat behind the man. 

 

“Alright, we’ll work this out somehow..Until we figure it out for sure, I need you two to try and keep this a secret from..well, everyone. It’ll be a small circle, the people who know.” Natasha nodded slowly as she looked around the room at the other three. “Sam will be taking good care of you, I’m sure of it. Let me know if you all need anything.” It wasn’t long after that when she left them be.

 

Not too long after  _ that,  _ Steve and Tony departed from Sam and Bucky. They were taking a short walk, Sam was hesitant but Tony assured the safety. Plus, there weren’t a horrible amount of people out on the block they walked on. Which was either really good, or really bad. Tony didn’t really focus on deciding which one of those was the right way to think of this, he just thought about how nice it was to finally be (safely) alone with Steve. They stopped walking at a bus stop, and Tony sat on the bench, motioning for Steve to join him. “What’s on your mind?” Steve asked him, and Tony looked down at their laps.

 

“I just wonder if anybody else has to go through what you went through. They prodded at me once and I lost it. I can’t imagine-” he took a breath, and Steve put his hand atop his own. Tony used that as a pass to side hug Steve, to lean into Steve’s side for warmth and comfort. “I can’t imagine how bad it was for you.” 

 

“I’ve moved on to worrying about other things.” Steve responded with a soft voice, and he noticed that it was beginning to sprinkle. A light rain that wouldn’t be a bother, it actually would feel quite nice as they walked back. Cool, and refreshing. Steve missed the rain, amongst many other things.

 

“What else?” Well, there were a lot of things. Steve had to think about it for a few seconds. When he came up with a good answer, the best answer, he put an arm around Tony and held him closer as they sat together.

 

“There are other people being held by Hydra, still.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's about to get #rough. Also, I didn't proof read this chapter so that's #rough ... enjoy! (ps, there will be official sambucky in the next few chapters, and I am very excited)


	9. Chapter 9

“You have to be twenty one to drink now?” Bucky’s voice was full of curiosity. Sam nodded. Bucky and him had been drinking together. Just a beer or two, nothing major. “Well, glad I exceed the minimum.” To that, Sam laughed.

 

“You’re a trip, Barnes.” 

 

“I told you not to call me that.” Bucky sat his beer down after sitting up on the couch. He brushed his hair from his face and sighed. “I’m just messing with you.” His eyes were on Sam at that point, and Sam nods again, this time slower. “I wanna ask you something.”

 

“Okay.” 

 

“Can you show me how to drive that truck of yours?” 

 

Sam laughed again. “Absolutely not.” He sat up as well and put his beer down when Bucky gave a look of confusion. “First of all, we’ve been drinking.”

 

“We’ve had one beer-”

 

“Still. Second of all, you’re from the forties. I’m not letting you crash my truck.” Bucky’s look went from confusion to being pissed off.

 

“I wouldn’t crash it.” The look that Sam gave him made him stand up and snatch the car keys from the coffee table. Sam stood too as Bucky walked away backwards. He jingled the keys in his hand and laughed at Sam before turning his back on the man and running out of the duplex.

 

Just as they ran out, Tony and Steve had been walking back in. The sprinkling turned into rain. Bucky’s feet, as they padded across the driveway, splashed with the surface water. It was picture perfect, in a way. He was quick to get in the truck and held the keys up in Sam’s face. Sam stood in the way of the car door and Bucky laughed, kicking playfully at Sam’s lower torso. Sam was, first of all, taken aback by the laugh. Secondly, he used a firm grip on Bucky’s knee to cease his kicking. “Fine, I’ll teach you how. But we’re only circling the block. It’s pouring out, even harder to drive in.”

 

“Shhh.” Bucky shook his head, and then turned to face the windshield. He looked down and put the key in the ignition. “I know how to ride a motorcycle, pretty well actually. Helicopter, too.”

 

“What?” Sam asked as he got in the passenger seat. “How do you-” the engine hummed to life and Sam shut his door as the teaching needed to begin. 

 

Overall, Bucky seemed to just absorb information so well. He was very good at listening. Therefore, he aced the lesson within the circling around the block. The only issue was his abrupt stop at the corner. It jolted them both ahead and freaked Bucky out a little. “It’s okay. Happens with all new drivers.” Sam smiled as Bucky rubbed his hands on the leather of the wheel slowly to level himself more. They were silent for a few more moments. Sam chose to break it when he thought of something. “Why did they teach you how to operate everything but a car?”

 

“Not everything.” Bucky mumbled. “I don’t know how to operate a submarine, or sail a boat, or fly a plane-”

 

“Fine, point taken.” Sam rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

 

“I think they thought I would be able to get away, with a car. With a motorcycle, sound was the problem. With a helicopter, obviousness was the problem.” A hum of a laugh emerged from Bucky as he pulled back into the driveway. The rain was pouring heavily on the truck at that point. His eyes moved over to Sam and it was quite dull, but those wonderful eyes were something to brighten the scene up.

 

Wonderful eyes? Bucky wondered about that thought for awhile. As Sam responded, Bucky questioned himself. “Guess they weren’t smart enough to keep you from using your own damn feet to escape.” Sam did pick up on how Bucky was staring at him, like he was questioning something. “You did good, for the first time driving, anyways.” His hand reached out and he pat Bucky on the shoulder, rubbing momentarily.

 

And for some reason, Bucky thought that Sam was leaning over the middle console. He thought something else was happening. Wow, okay, he got the wrong idea. Too bad, too. Because embarrassingly, he leaned ahead a bit and began to shut his eyes. Hopefully it wasn’t noticeable? Nope, okay. Because Sam was staring at him and gave a confused little smile. God, Bucky felt his face warm up to the point of clear blush within seconds. 

 

“It’s okay, Bucky. I wouldn’t mind-” Too late. Bucky got out of the truck and headed right inside, on a quick set of feet.

  
  


“What are these other people like? These other people being held by Hydra?” Tony asked of Steve and got sort of a haphazardous nod. They spoke just as Sam and Bucky ran out of the house.

 

“There was one other person in the base that we were in. They couldn’t keep too many of us in one base at once and this other one. This boy, he-”

 

“It was another guy?”

 

“A kid, it was a kid. An older kid who was being kept there. They put the most security on him, of all three of us.” He explained. 

 

For a little bit of time, Tony took a seat, and looked down at the floor. “A kid?” Tony asked, getting another nod from Steve. “You’d think Hydra had lines drawn somewhere. What wouldn’t they do?”

 

“I don’t think they do anything to him yet. He has something wrong with him, they’re making it into something ‘great.’”

 

“Just like they did with Bucky? They gave him that arm to make him do _ great things _ ?” The parallel that Tony drew made Steve step back from the couch. “So there it is, then. We need to go and get that kid.”

 

At that point, Tony stood back up and Steve watched him closely. “We can’t go back there.” Steve said, shrugging. “We don’t have any way of breaking in and-”

 

Tony held a hand up and shook his head. “No. Steve. You’re wrong. Listen, it’s okay for you to be wrong.” That made Steve laugh. “There’s a lot of shit that you need to catch up on, and let me help you out by catching you up on this.” The hand Tony had been holding up was suddenly encased in metal, red and gold detailed metal that had flown in through the open front door. The door that Bucky and Sam had left open on the way out. Steve stepped back again, and looked around. 

 

“Tony?” Steve asked when another bit of the metal armor came in and attached to the other man. “I don’t understand this.”

 

“I know you don’t.” Understandingly, Tony told Steve this, and smiled. Within the next few moments, all of the armor is around his body and the faceplate didn’t fall down to seal just yet. “I’m something of a hero, like yourself. I guess Hydra just goes after heroes.” He watched as Steve stated, dumbfounded. “Well, come on, Cap.” The faceplate then fell.

 

With hesitance, Steve walked over and got his shield from the kitchen island. From behind he felt Tony’s arm around his waist and he laughed, leaning back into the touch. Even if Tony had cold metal all over, Steve leaned against him. The armor actually made Tony a bit taller, and Steve looked back to observe that. “Suit up.” Tony told him and Steve nodded. He walked back to the spare room he slept in the night prior. There, he changed into the Hydra suit, and he realized that every time he did that, he wished it were the last. Though, he also realized that every time he did it, it wasn’t the last time.

 

Which made him feel even worse about the idea of going back. So bad that he didn’t open the bedroom door again. Not for awhile, anyways. He sat on the bed and put his head in his hands. “Rogers?” He heard Tony call from the hall, and when he knocked on the door, Steve hummed in acceptance. When he walked in, Tony wasn’t in that armor anymore. Steve stood up as if on queue when he walked in, and Tony noticed his tension, his fear, all by the way he stood. 

 

“I just needed to think for a second.” Steve apologized and looked down. “I just hate this thing.” He spoke of the suit, mumbling. He quickened his mumbling in an attempt to keep his voice from breaking and Tony placed his hands on his shoulders.

 

“It’s okay.” Tony said about Steve having to take a break. “We can break for however long you want, Hydra’s not going anywhere.” At least, he hoped not. Better not tell Steve that. Yeah, Steve was already stressing enough. 

 

Luckily, Steve calmed down on his own within the next few minutes. They sat together on the bed and Steve was beginning to like having Tony that close so often. He took note of that, and wrapped his arms around Tony in a bear hug motion. He kissed Tony on the cheek once he did that, and Tony laughed. An unsure sort of laugh that followed with him looking at Steve’s eyes to pick up the emotion. “Why’d you just do that?” 

 

That was what got Steve to pull the grip away and, for the most part, end their closeness. “I thought that maybe, since we’ve been sitting so close and holding hands, I thought you wouldn’t mind if I did that. I’m sorry. Did I overstep?” Steve sounded a bit nervous, and was contemplating every possible thing Tony could say mentally.

 

“No. You didn’t.” Tony scooted close to Steve. Well, looks like Steve didn’t think about one response Tony could have given. Those words, followed by a hefty kiss, a kiss that didn’t end in seconds like down in the base. 

 

Such a kiss left Steve flustered when Bucky approached the room without knocking. Made sense, it was the guest room he’d been sharing with Steve. He didn’t really need to knock. His hair was dripping wet and he looked a little caught up, like a damsel in distress in the slightest. Even if a little bit, Bucky looking flustered was an odd sight. Even more odd? What could have made him look that way. Bucky walked with quick steps, and no words to the bathroom connected to the room, and shut the door behind him.

 

To that, Tony laughed and leaned his head against Steve’s shoulder, closing his eyes. “I’m so tired of today.” He whispered.    
  


“It’s only noon.” Steve acknowledged. That got a groan of exasperation from Tony and they shared a laugh that time. 

 

Sam looked like he was headed down the hall when he walked in, but he stopped when seeing Tony’s suit stood up near the kitchen. “Stark?” Sam asked and got a questioning look from Tony, then he saw Tony smile. A tired smile as he leaned against Steve.

 

“There’s a kid at the base, Wilson.” Tony responded. “Like a teenager. Being treated just like Steve and Bucky were. We were planning on going to help him.”

 

The explanation made Sam sit with them in the living area. He looked at the couple on the couch, and then to his feet. “It’d take awhile to get it passed.”

 

“Which is why we were gonna go ahead and get on with it.” Steve nudged at Tony’s arm a little when he heard the snarky tone.  

 

As Tony was saying that, Bucky walked back into the living room and joined them by standing behind the couch. He put his hands on each side of Steve at the back of the couch and looked over the room. “So, are we gonna go and help this kid or what?” He noticed how Sam looked, and quirked a smile. “Unless you’re scared of getting fired.”

 

A scoff came from Sam and he shook his head. “Of course not. Let’s get on with it then.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmmm. hmmm. The kid? What KID?


	10. Chapter 10

Another thing that Steve had to wonder was how many times that base would be brought up again. That horrific underground bunker that he hated every part of. Bucky didn’t seem overly thrilled of going back either. As they headed out to the desert-like terrain that the base was in, Steve took the back seat with Tony again. Bucky seemed a little quiet. Quieter than normal, anyways. Steve leaned ahead as he held Tony’s hand in the back and rested his chin on Bucky’s seat. “Are you okay?” he mumbled. 

 

The radio played a bit loud, so their conversation would be covered. Bucky looked back to him and gave a short nod. “Yeah, I’m alright.” They exchange a quiet look with one another and the truck sped up a bit since they were on a longer, more open road.

 

It was close to where Sam first saw Steve and Bucky and let them in the truck. Steve looked on the side of the road and drew that resemblance. Not too long after that, the thin forestry was around them and beyond that, they knew the base sat. So they parked far from it. 

 

Still, Steve wasn’t used to Tony’s suiting up method. When they stood behind the truck, he was once again shocked when Tony was encased in armor from head to toe. Bucky pulled the safety off on his rifle and looked at Steve who held onto his shield. The black mask around his eyes and the top of his head made Bucky frown a little. He didn’t like the sight of someone so kind and willing dressed that way. Steve wasn’t as menacing to Bucky now that they both knew the truth. It was still a creepy sight.

 

“It’s half a mile southeast, so we better start walking.” Tony said and then smiled behind the faceplate. “Well, Barnes, Rogers. You two better start walking.” Sam already had the metallic wings in place, and after that, they both took off to get aerial views and lookouts. 

 

There’s the alone time Steve had been waiting for. The sun beamed down on them, and as they were dressed in all black, it wasn’t fun. Steve hooked his shield on his back as they began to walk and saw the way Bucky looked at him. “What is it?”

 

For a moment, Bucky didn’t respond. He walked in sync with Steve and looked around, then ahead of him only. “I just feel like something bad’s gonna happen.” He spoke gently, a little bit of a Brooklyn stumble in his words.

 

That was never good. Bucky’s gut feelings, they were either completely on point or askew beyond belief. Steve could only hope this one was categorized under the latter. 

  
“You’d think they’d have guards out here after all that’s been happening.” Steve mumbled a little when they got close enough to see the entrance to the base. There was nobody around. 

 

“Which is why we should be careful. They probably do have people watching.” Bucky advised and held onto Steve at the arm in that moment. Steve gave him a curious little glance. Then his stare to Bucky went a little softer. “Don’t tell me to lighten up, I-”

“How did you know I was gonna say that?” Steve asked, and they shared a happy expression. Bucky and him were both remembering a lot about each other, what they used to have. 

 

They didn’t have the time to stand still. Sam landed on the ground next to Bucky and looked at them both through goggles. “There’s a second entrance. If we go two and two, we can meet in the middle down there and take care of things without a big mess.”

 

“Where’s the fun in that?” Bucky joked and nodded. “Okay, we’ll take this one.” He motioned vaguely to the front area, and then walked ahead a few feet. He turned to look at Steve. “Rogers?”

 

“Yeah.” Steve nodded to get back into focus. He walked with Bucky and saw Tony hovering on the other side of the base, high in the sky. It made him a little curious, but he pulled his focus back around to the base entrance. Oddly vulnerable, as well. Steve took a look around the stairwell down, and felt a pit grow dark in his stomach. He was getting a bad feeling at that point, too. Which wasn’t good, that they were both walking in with a bad feeling about the whole thing.

 

The walked down the stairs though and Bucky’s rifle flashlight shone around the dark spot. They left the bunker doors open behind them. Also, there was no wind whatsoever out. It had stopped raining and the gusts had died down. 

  
Yet, the doors slam when they were down the stairwell. Bucky looked over and saw the way Steve flinched uncharacteristically. They were in the corridor now, and everything was still dark. “This is a trap.” Bucky whispered. “They knew we were coming. We’ve gotta go.” 

 

Before they got the chance, things escalated even more and now, Steve looked when seeing a red dot, a glowing aim dot on Bucky’s chest. “Get down.” He manage and a shot was fired. They both ducked, thankfully. But even ducking didn’t help. What helped them was Tony’s iron hand clamping over the gun’s barrel. 

 

Steve used his shield to knock that specific guard out for the time being. He caught it when it came back, and he turned around, throwing again because he sensed the man right behind him. Bucky shot a few bullets and let the methodically ricochet from the shield back to the guards behind them both. Though one hit Tony, but only dulled the armor a bit. “Hey, watch where you shoot!” Tony called from the faceplate and Bucky glared at him momentarily. 

 

Eventually, Sam was with them and they were all fighting defense. Which wasn’t going well. They were underground, this time fighting defense instead of offense. There were only two ways for this to end. They’d either get out and run away, or give in and let the endless amount of Hydra members engulf them. 

 

Either way, Steve wanted to win. That wasn’t an option, and he knew that. That wouldn’t keep him from giving up though. 

 

Somewhere in the fight, Steve became shocked when someone took his shield. It was odd, because it wasn’t snatched from his grip. In a way, the shield sort of flew from his grip without his say. Left on his gloved hand was a sticky residue, and Steve shook his hand to try and get it off.

 

All of the guards had dissipated and left one person in the corridor with them. Suddenly, that corridor felt so much larger. In front of them stood the kid. The teenager in casual clothing. He had messy hair and tired eyes. Tired eyes didn’t suit him, not at all. Above all else, he held Steve’s shield and stood up straight.

 

He wasn’t under control though, Steve knew they hadn’t programmed that into him yet. So he didn’t immediately lose it. He did stiffen up and take a glance at Bucky though. Bucky didn’t know what to do, either. 

 

“We came to get you outta here.” Steve chose to respond with. He watched the kid throw the shield behind and listened to it level on the cement. 

 

“I can’t leave.” He spoke and the four men in front of him softened. He was young. Fifteen at least. “You, you see all of those people right? They’d kill me, they’d kill us.” He motioned between them all and shrugged. “I’m useful here.”

 

“No you aren’t.” Bucky said and Sam hit him at the shoulder gently. Bucky shrugged and shook his head. “Soon, you’ll be killing people for them, and then you won’t feel too useful. They made me do it. They made Steve do it.” Steve looked at his feet for a second when Bucky said that.

 

“Just help us leave, kid.” Tony beckoned, the faceplate lifted to show his annoyed expression. “Come on.” He mumbled when the younger man in front of them stared without words. 

 

“Let’s start with this.” Sam began with. “What’s your name?”

 

Not a moment of hesitance passed through the teen, and he nodded. “Peter.” He told them and Bucky seemed a little confused.

 

“Have they not wiped your brain at all?” He sounded confused, too.

 

Behind Peter, someone entered the hallway with them. He kicked aside Steve’s shield as he passed it, and not long after did Steve realize who it was. Rumlow, wearing that stupid mask. The one with the crossbones on it. Bucky knew too, and stood beside Steve tentatively. “It’s a pretty shitty move that you bastards erased our memory and not his.” Bucky retorted just to Brock standing there behind Peter. 

 

It was a frustrating sight. None of them knew what to do, because if anyone moved, they’d all certainly suffer the same amount. With Brock holding a pistol and Bucky holding his rifle. What was even more frustrating was Brock’s response. No words for Bucky. No words for anyone aside from Steve. Specific words in French, one after another, that made no sense when put together presumably. Steve stepped back when he heard the first word. He immediately knew what was happening.    
  
When Steve backed away and tried covering his ears to avoid the words, Bucky cocked his rifle in Brock’s direction. He stepped ahead and tightened up. “Shut your damn mouth, Rumlow.” With a smile after that, Brock continued and was shouting the words at that point. Tony held his hand up and the palm flashed momentarily. Peter ducked and Bucky was out of the way when a blaster shot Brock right in the face.

 

Though, it was too late. The blast hit Brock when he finished the last word, and Steve had fallen to his knees in front of Tony. The action alone shocked Tony enough to leave his suit. He left it standing and fell to Steve’s level. It seemed that Brock had been preoccupied with Bucky and Sam. Peter, on the other hand, approached Tony and Steve. Tony, at first, seemed annoyed by the action. But then he saw the glisten of Steve’s shield. Peter put it on the floor next to Steve and both him and Tony looked closely at the soldier. Who had his head dropped, and he seemed to be breathing heavily.

 

The heavy rise and fall of his shoulders and chest made Tony nervous. “Steve? Come on, Steve. We’ve gotta get out of here.” He quickened his voice when he reached the end. At the same time, between the screaming, Brock told Steve something in a foreign language. French, or Russian, or even a slurred up English...he told Steve to do something. A duty for Steve to fulfill. As soon as he finished speaking, Brock ran from the corridor, retreating the scene. 

 

When Brock left, Bucky eased the grip on his rifle, and turned to see Steve stand up with Tony. “Tony, get away from him.” Bucky warned and immediately got a better grip on his rifle, in the direction of Steve. 

 

“What are you doing?” Tony asked quickly and stood in front of Steve. He realized, shortly after, that he didn’t have his armor on. Seemingly, he was helpless. Not helpless, but definitely not as defensive. That was a good explanation for why Steve was able to yank him back into a chokehold. 

 

“What’s going on?” Sam asked and saw the way Steve’s hands grabbed one at Tony’s chin, and one at the crook of his neck. Sort of a ‘snapping neck’ motion. 

 

After giving a shocked look, Peter slung out webbing and it grasped Steve’s hand. With the strength, he pulled the grip and Steve looked at his hand without saying anything. 

 

Good thing Tony had that opportunity to get back into his suit. Peter let the webbing go when Steve began to pull him close enough for a hit. “We have to get out of here.” Bucky said, urgently. “Nothing we do will get through to him.” Another pause came from Bucky, when he spoke again it was harsher. “He will kill you if he has the chance, Tony. We need to leave.” 

 

Visibly, Tony was freaking out. There was no hiding it, even with the suit on. Just from the way he stood. With quick reflexes, Sam swooped in and pulled Tony ahead by his wrist. “Kid, come on!” Sam called to Peter and they all began to leave after that. It took quite a bit of urging to get Tony to be with ‘all’ of them.

 

“We can’t leave him down there.” Tony said once they were back by the truck. He let the faceplate lift and groaned. “Why did we do this? We should’ve known something bad would happen. We let it happen anyways. And for what?” He looked at Peter, who dropped his head and hugged himself gently. “For a kid?”

 

“Stop it, Stark.” Sam saw how meek Peter turned in that moment. That emotion didn’t suit him. Before Tony could get any words out of his open mouth, Sam said something else. “Shut up for a minute! We’re all worried about Steve. But he would’ve killed you down there. He wasn’t Steve. He was-”

 

“Captain Hydra.” Bucky mumbled. “The Winter Soldier and Captain Hydra. That’s what they call us.” Tony was looking between Bucky and Sam.

 

They got back into the truck and Tony didn’t like how Peter sat where Steve used to sit. He had his suit compacted in the bed of the truck.

 

He was starting to feel really bad, was this how bad Steve felt when Tony made him leave before?


	11. Chapter 11

“I know it sounded like it, but I didn’t mean what I said.” Tony spoke to Peter as things settled down that night. Natasha came back by, and was chewing Sam out about it. Bucky stood in the room and listened to it all happen. At moments he’d laugh at Sam, and Sam wouldn’t get mad because- he felt like Bucky didn’t find many things amusing. Plus, his...best friend? Yeah, Steve was just snatched right back by Hydra.    
  
The closest to Peter in size was Sam. Even so, Peter was drowning in the fabric of the sweater he’d been lent. He was oddly cold, even though they were in the dead of Death Valley. Peter sat at the island on a bar stool. He hadn’t said much since they got out of the base. “It’s okay.” He did manage that, though.

 

“It isn’t. I’m pretty pissed that we lost Steve but..I shouldn’t have said that. Not after what you’ve been through.” Tony replied easier as he poured himself a glass of water. He hummed a motion to Peter, offering him a glass. Peter took Tony’s glass and sheepishly drank from it. “Not what I meant, but-” Tony gained a smile and nodded when Peter handed the glass back to him. Tony put it on the granite countertop. “It’s yours, now.” For once in a long time, Tony didn’t know what else to say. When he did get an idea of what words to put to use, he cleared his throat and used them. “What did they do to you, anyways?”

 

“Not much?” Peter questioned himself and laughed. A sad laugh. “They gave me these abilities.” He moved his hand up and Tony ducked a little when a web was shot to latch onto a cabinet across the kitchen. “Then took me away from the only family I had left. That’s all I really remember.”

 

“Where are you from?”

 

“New York.”

 

“Guess they have a type. What part?”

 

“Queens.”

  
“They definitely have a type.” Tony smiled. Brooklyn and Queens were interchangeable to someone who knew Manhattan like the back of his hand. He needed to stop thinking about Steve, though. It made him a little sad. Okay no, it made him super sad. 

 

“Do you know a lot about Steve?” Peter asked as he took another sip of the water that was now his. 

 

“I know enough.” That was Tony’s answer, and it made Peter look a little curious. “Hydra tried to turn me into a puppet, too. I met Steve while I was down there and we made the plan to get out. If I had heard about you, then we would’ve brought you with us the first time around.” 

 

“You like him?”

 

“Who? Steve?” Tony watched Peter nod, and laughed. “Yeah I like him. Have you seen his jawline? Who wouldn’t like that man?” It was in that moment that he realized he was speaking to a fifteen year old, and this fifteen year old probably didn’t know the difference between a good jawline and a perfect jawline. Also, Peter was fifteen, he probably didn’t know a thing about men or women yet. Hydra wasn’t much help in that field either, presumably.

  
  


Steve was shocked when he wasn’t put directly in the memory erasing chair. He sat down in the bedroom that they took Tony out of just a matter of time into them being in cahoots. Cahoots meaning Tony kissed him to get them separated purposely. That kiss though, it was nothing like the one they shared before coming to get Peter. Steve smiled about it to himself, and when Brock came into the room, he didn’t quit smiling. His expression only changed when Brock pulled him by the chin to look up.

 

“I don’t understand you.” Brock mumbled a bit. “Why aren’t you fighting back anymore? It was fun as hell while it lasted.”

 

At first, Steve wasn’t going to answer. He looked away from Brock and only responded when Brock got closer. Steve? He didn’t move. “Why would I fight you? I don’t know what the hell goes through your head. You’re insane.” Brock grabbed him in that instant. When Steve acted as if he weren’t aware of himself as a human, not a weapon, he’d let it happen. Though he scooted back when Brock held a firm, bruising grip, at where Steve’s neck and shoulder met. He was no match of strength compared to Steve, by any and all means. Steve wasn’t about to helplessly fight all of the people in this base though. Even if he truly wanted to. 

 

Steve scooted back on the bed until his back hit the wall and he remembered sitting that way, texting Tony until he got too tired to keep his eyes opened. “Did you just come back here to get the kid out?” Brock asked, and smiled. A menacing, untruthful smile. “What a hero.” Since Steve had his legs pulled up with him as he sat up, he could use one to kick Brock right in the chest. Just as Brock tried to move ahead to get close again. 

 

“Leave me alone.” Steve said as Brock caught his breath.

 

“That’s not how this works. You don’t tell me what to do.” As Brock stood up fully again, he brushed off his chest and walked to the door. “Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me that way?” His laugh was equally as menacing. Steve wasn’t sure why there was laughter involved but he did as soon as Brock spoke again. Those words, over again. Not English but Steve knew what they were. So he sat up stiff.

 

He had a pretty good idea of what Brock wanted him to do. So he stood up and aimed to hit Brock square in the back of the head but his wrist was grabbed in the middle of trying, so he was at a loss. Too late to try and fight back, anyways, Steve found out. The last word was uttered, and Steve’s expression dropped. 

 

“I know exactly who you are. Who you really are. And here’s what’s gonna happen.” Brock let go of Steve’s wrist with a shove. “Soldier?” He asked, in the foreign language. When Steve nodded and replied the automatic ‘ready’, Brock grinned. “You’re going to kill Bucky Barnes. The Winter Soldier.” He pat Steve at the shoulder. “Are we clear? I will give you more detail if you need it. But you know more about where he is than I do.”

 

An affirmative nod came from Steve as he listened to the orders, and without words he got his shield that was hung upon the wall. It still had a bit of web debris on it from Peter and Brock sighed. “We’ll get it cleaned as soon as you’re done. Now go.” 

  
  


Somewhere along the night, Peter fell asleep on the couch. It was large enough for him to sleep on and for Tony to sit on comfortably. Tony worked on his tablet as the minutes passing turned into hours. He hadn’t even been kind of tired when Natasha left the place. Bucky walked out of the room they were in and down the hall, and when Sam followed, Tony became interested. Peter had been asleep for hours at that point, he was bored out of his mind just responding to emails. 

  
He also got interested when he heard Bucky speaking, mumbly as he seemed to do a lot, through the door of the guest room. Which meant he wasn’t in there with the door shut alone. Huh. Tony looked over to see Peter in a peaceful slumber. He missed Steve. He missed Steve as much as he could with the amount of time that they knew each other. A more accurate statement would be that he was worried about Steve.

 

Bucky was worried about Steve, too. Sam followed him to the bedroom, and while he wasn’t shocked at all, he did feel a pit arrive in his stomach. Not nervous or afraid, Bucky concluded that he was happy with Sam’s company. “Are you not tired?” Bucky asked him as he walked off to the bed, and took a seat on the edge. 

 

“Not really. I just thought you needed some company.”

 

“You’re not completely wrong about that.” Bucky answered and looked over to his side. When he found it was clear of anything, he pat once to get Sam to sit next to him. “I haven’t had the company of anybody that I like in so long.” It was a subtle way for him to tell Sam that he was interested. A little admiration. 

  
“Are you worried about Steve?” As Sam asked the question, he sat next to Bucky and felt a little content when Bucky leaned against his side a little bit. His words went away and his tongue went dry at the feeling of Bucky’s flesh arm against his side. He rose his own arm to rest around Bucky’s shoulders.

 

A nod came from Bucky and he rested his head on Sam’s shoulder. He was a strong, nearly unstoppable super soldier, now using Sam’s shoulder as a cushion. “I’m starting to remember him.” Even though it was only five words, they impacted Bucky a whole lot saying them. It also seemed to set Sam back a little.

 

Not enough to keep Sam from responding though. “What do you remember?”

 

“We were so close.” Bucky smiled. “And we took care of each other, it wasn’t so bad.” 

 

“How close?” Sam asked with curiosity in his tone.

 

“Are you asking me if I’m in a relationship with Steve?” Bucky sat up to look at Sam when he asked that. “Even if we had been, he doesn’t remember and he’s with Tony now. I couldn’t mess things up like that.” Just as he finished speaking, Bucky saw the way Sam was looking at him. “I’m not in a relationship, no. Are, you?” 

 

“I’m not.” The answer made Bucky’s heart swell. He nodded though and didn’t say anything about it. What he did do was momentum. He leaned enough to press a kiss to Sam’s cheek, and then looked down to take ahold of his hand. His metal hand had been covered with a glove, so it was warm yet firm to the touch. 

 

“Wanna keep me company all night?” Bucky asked so vicariously after he held Sam’s hand with affection. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean...I personally think sambucky is the cutest.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ohhhh boy, cliffhangers are the worst :I

  
  


“Who’s waiting for you back in New York, kid?” Tony asked Peter that question as the sun got close to the middle of the sky. It was closing in on noon, midday, and Tony was filled to the brim with nervousness. The look Peter gave him was questionable. They stood in the kitchen together, as they did the day before, but the conversation had a whole other topic to it. 

 

“I don’t think anybody is.” Peter’s voice was a little quiet, embarrassed maybe. When Tony looked at him in a curious way, Peter smiled sheepishly. “My parents died when I was young. I remember my aunt and uncle taking me in, but it was sort out of obligation. They weren’t as interested in me as my parents had been.”

 

Tony put his hand on Peter’s shoulder and rubbed a little in comfort. It made Peter laugh and nudge the hand a little. “I don’t need sympathy. I kind of just want to move on from all of this.”

 

That made sense enough to Tony to make him withdraw and move onto other things. “I don’t like that Steve’s back there.” He claimed.

 

“I don’t, either. Because of me, too.” As Peter spoke, Tony looked over his shoulder from where he then stood, staring out of the window.

 

“It’s only partially your fault.” He shrugged, getting a bit of a stare from Peter. With a shake of the head, Tony moved on yet again. “What did they do to you to make you shoot spider webs like that?”

 

It was a little odd, but Peter smiled. “They didn’t do anything. When I was younger, I was bitten by a spider, and woke up that next morning a completely different person.”

 

They wished to continue speaking to one another, though they were interrupted. Sam walked into the kitchen and Bucky followed shortly after him. It seemed like they were stuck at the hip already. Sam set a phone down on the counter and Tony took a look at it. A tracker, labeled ‘Rogers.’ “You chipped him?” Tony asked.

 

“Nat told me to. In case something like this happened. And, it’s happening, just to let you know. He’s on the move, right in our direction. What are the odds that he’s coming here with a smile on his face after escaping? They’re not high, I’ll tell you that.” While Sam explained, Tony looked closer at the phone. His eyes went soft and he turned around to lean back against the counter. His eyes shut and he whispered choice words to himself. Peter looked between Tony and Sam. 

 

When he saw that Tony caught his glance, Peter tensed up. “Do you have a suit, too?” The way that Peter shook his head made Tony sigh and stand up straight. He left the kitchen without another word.

 

Another odd thing that everyone sort of just moved past. Peter saw out of the corner of his eyes, Bucky and Sam whispering to one another. He heard every word they were saying though. It was unimportant heartfelt topics. Peter left as soon as he heard Sam laugh a little.    
  
“What are you doing?” Peter asked when he found Tony in the living room, phone to his ear. Tony pointed a finger at him to signal for him to wait.

 

“I’m on the phone, kid.” He whispered and then spoke a little louder. “Happy. I need you to bring me a shit ton of things in about an hours time, alright?” With a few meek steps backwards, Peter left the living room too. He headed outdoors. Where it was sunny, and great out compared to the pouring rain from the day prior.

 

He took a seat on the door steps, and put his chin on the palm of his hand. He wasn’t a fan of how fastly things had been changing. He liked change just fine, just not in such a speed as this. Peter kept to himself until the door behind him opened. Then, he watched Tony take a seat next to him on the step. “What are the supplies for?”

 

“You’ll see.”

 

Hours later, Tony had the supplies and had turned Sam’s living room in the living room. “How’s your wound?” Sam asked Bucky, who pulled up his shirt and showed that it had already been partially healed over. There weren’t any bandages remaining around the wound, and it had only been a short time since it happened.

 

“One pro to being a super soldier.” Bucky remarked, sitting on the couch in the middle of all the mess that Tony had made. Peter sat on the floor next to the couch, and asked Tony questions every now and then. Tony did his best not to get too annoyed. There were some moments where Tony had to tell Peter to be quiet.

 

In this moment, he didn’t tell Peter to be quiet. “Hey, kid, try this on for size.” He stood up before speaking of course, and held up a red and blue fabric suit, looking as if it were stretchy in a sort of way. A suit for Peter. Peter got to his feet, and took the suit in his hands. He laughed and held it close.

 

“This is for me?” He asked in a hopeful tone and Tony nodded, patting Peter on the shoulder.

 

“Go get into it.” He motioned toward the bathroom and when Peter rushed off, he looked around the room. Then he checked the phone, the tracker. “We’ve got less than an hour before he shows up. What’s the plan? Because we’re not hurting him.”

 

“What if we have to?” Sam asked and Bucky looked down at his feet where he sat. He said nothing to Sam, and Tony chose to respond.

 

“We’ll do everything we can to avoid it. If we have to, we’ll sedate him.” Tony sounded a little hesitant about it, but he couldn’t help it. He was scared about having to hurt Steve, too. “We won’t know how much trouble he is until he’s here. Sam, we should probably leave here. Unless you want to re-furnish your home.”

 

“Don’t have much time for a head start.” Sam said and pointed to the phone. Tony looked at it. Steve had sped up. He was blocks away. Peter then entered the room again, in his new suit. He held the mask in his hands, and looked at Tony.

 

“Well, put it on.” Tony told him quickly. Peter did that and the mask adjusted to fit him just like the rest of the suit had. He looked ahead as the eyes adjusted. A laugh came from him as he looked at them all. “Follow me.” Tony left after speaking and Peter did follow, as told.

  
  
  
  
  


Less than twenty more minutes after that, Steve arrived. As they all suspected. Except, as Steve broke the lock and walked in without struggle, there was nobody welcoming him. Not that he was in any state to be properly greeted. He looked around the living area, and then made his way down the hall. There was a camera in the hallway’s corner, plastered there just half an hour prior. As Tony watched it, he saw that Steve got closer to the bathroom.

 

“Heads up, spidey.” He said into the commuter. They’d all been hidden throughout the duplex. Tony himself was hidden in the darkness of Sam’s closet. Peter was behind the bathroom door. Which Steve nudged open just seconds later. 

 

With instinct, Peter shot a web at the bathroom mirror cabinet, and flung it open to hit Steve. It shattered on impact. He cursed at himself for the bad luck he’d have for the seven years to follow. He had other things to worry about in that moment though. Peter then kicked the door ahead to hit Steve with it, to keep him back. The actions kept him back long enough for Peter to get into the right position. In that position, he shot webs at Steve and pulled him into the bathroom. 

 

His plan was to keep Steve locked in the bathroom. They had a dresser set out in the hall, ready to push it in front of the door. A dresser and door wouldn’t keep a super soldier behind for long. They all knew that. What Peter didn’t suspect was the bathroom’s size limitations lead to Steve grabbing him at the throat and throwing him against the tile wall. Peter felt his back give in on him as he fell to the floor, and he tried to get to his feet again. No luck came, maybe it was from the broken mirror. Or, it was probably from Steve’s extreme strength.

 

Yet Peter didn’t ask for help. “Wilson, help him out.” Tony sounded a little urgent. 

 

Sam was there to help Peter shortly after. Peter laid in the bath, since that’s the wall Steve threw him into.

 

Yet Steve didn’t touch Sam. Sam was doing his best to hold Steve back, and restrain him in the bathroom. Steve just walked away, basically. He shut the door behind him, and pushed the dresser in front of the door. Sam pressed a finger to his commuter and looked at the door. “He’s headed your way, Stark.”

 

“No he isn’t.” Tony mumbled back when he heard footsteps pass the bedroom he was in. Steve was going right for the guest bedroom. 

 

Tony left the closet when he heard the guest bedroom’s door slam back into the wall when opened. “Get to Bucky.” Sam said through the commuter as he worked on getting the door opened. It might involved knocking the entire dresser over, but it’d work. 

 

Just as Tony got to the guest room, he froze when seeing Bucky standing stiff in front of the window. In front of him stood Steve, with a pistol to his head. 


	13. Chapter 13

“Tony, you should leave the room.” Bucky said, speaking slowly. His eyes didn’t leave Steve. More importantly, the hand of Steve’s that was holding the gun. 

 

It hadn’t so much as processed to Tony that Bucky had said anything. All Tony had of the suit on was the handpiece. Yet, he didn’t want to put the blaster to use because it could deal some damage to Steve. Then again, if he didn’t do something quick, hurting Steve wouldn’t mean anything because Bucky would be dead. Tony thought of himself as a very smart man. In that moment, he felt so lost and confused though.

 

This was what it was all for. Steve had one target, a mission goal. That goal was to end Bucky’s life. Steve hadn’t moved though. Something about the way he held the gun somewhat gave off a vibe of hesitance. The fact that he hadn’t pulled the trigger yet also showed that he was hesitant.

 

There must have been a gap in the system that Hydra had spent so long assembling. Something to do with Steve and his mind must have faltered, leading to this blank space of uncertainty. There was also a chance that Bucky understood the feeling. That could’ve been why he was asking Tony to leave. He needed to be alone with Steve to make this work out alright. Either that, or he was being kind enough to let Tony refrain from seeing his brains all over the wall.

 

Drawing those conclusions made Tony leave the room, just as Bucky suggested he do. Tony stood in the hall, and the door was left open by a crack. All through life, Tony could never withdraw his curiosity. He peeked in every few seconds. Things were quite silent throughout the house. Just until he heard quick footsteps and the rattle of Sam’s gun. 

 

“Hush, hush!” Tony whispered harshly as Sam approached him from behind. “Don’t-” he added on when Sam tried to pass him to get into the bedroom. “They need to be alone for this to work, if it’ll even work.” He looked behind him, and then noticed that it was Sam who he was speaking to. Not Peter. “Where’s Peter?”

 

“He’s on the couch, wouldn’t stay awake. I came to see if you could help.” Sam whispered back and saw Tony look away from him, down the hall behind them both. He left Sam in the said hallway, and got to the couch in just a few moments. 

 

Sam didn’t follow when Tony went, leaving just the two of them in the living room. Tony nudged Peter at the shoulder once, and when he didn’t get a reaction, he forced Peter to sit up on the couch. Peter’s body was limp, and so his shoulders slouched, and his head drooped down. “Kid,” Tony said after taking the mask off of Peter’s head. Peter’s hair came out a mess, and Tony could see the darkness of a bruise accumulating at the top of Peter’s back and the bottom of his neck, where his suit hemmed. 

 

Luckily, it wasn’t bruising that way in a spot where it was concussive. “Hey, kid?” He tried again, shaking Peter at the shoulders enough for his whole body to react. Peter tensed up when his eyes opened and he took a short, sudden breath. His head fell back, and he saw Tony looking down at him.

 

To that, he let out a small noise. “Oh,” was the sudden gasp of a noise, and he straightened himself up. Which hurt, very badly. He couldn’t keep that fact in, because a sound of pain came from his throat as he stiffened up. “I’m, sorry..the mask, I think the mask tore a little and-” Peter put his hand on his face, feeling his skin. “Shit..did I lose the mask?” His eyes were quick to move around, and as he did so, Tony noticed his pupils as they dilated unevenly.

 

“No, it’s right here.” Tony held the mask in Peter’s view, and then put the hand on his shoulder. “Take it easy, kid. I want you to go out to the truck, get in the back seat, and lay down. Don’t go to sleep, though. Just keep your head down.”

 

After a little bit of stubbornness from Peter, Tony got him to do as he said, and then he had the chance to go back down the hall. When he stood by Sam again, they listened in together to try and make out what the other two were saying.

 

“I think you remember me. That’s why you can’t pull the trigger.” Bucky started off with. He was being very careful with every word he spoke. “I know you remember me, it’s just hard to explain; especially when you are pointing a gun at my face.” He stood in front of the window, still, with his hands now back on the windowsill to steady himself. Also, it reminded him that he had nowhere else to go.

 

“Why do I have to kill you?” Was Steve’s question. It sounded like his only question. Though, Bucky knew that Steve had so many more questions.

 

“Because they told you to. You don’t want to kill me. They want to kill me. They want you to kill me.” At that, Bucky knew he needed to continue. The look that Steve gave him told him he needed to continue. “We’ve known each other longer than any two normal people could possibly know each other. And when Hydra discovered us, they broke us down. Now that we’re breaking away, they’re trying everything they can to get us, at least one of us, back. So they’re trying to get you to kill me, so that you will go back to them easily.”

 

What Hydra didn’t know is that Tony was the true threat. Tony wouldn’t stop until Steve was alright again, even if it took his own death to secure Steve’s safety. Not that Steve remembered that right then. “Why you?” Steve asked then, after Bucky finished speaking. He still held the pistol in Bucky’s face. It wasn’t as threatening as it had been before, though.

 

“Because we were in love. They know that about us, but you didn’t remember it. That’s what they didn’t know.” As Bucky finished speaking, Steve lowered the weapon and looked at Bucky closely. He seemed expecting of more words. “I remembered, but you hadn’t remembered. They thought that killing me would hurt you enough to finish this all off.”

 

In the hall, Tony was looking at the door, through the spot where it was cracked open. Sam stood silently next to him, and when Tony looked at him, they stared for a moment without words. Since the room was quiet, the glisten of the sun from the window on Steve’s gun wasn’t present anymore, Sam entered the room and used it as an opportunity to get Steve restrained. The pistol was dropped by Steve when Sam pulled back his hands to be cuffed. Once Steve was on his knees with his wrists bound together by cuffs, Tony entered the room.

 

Again, the room was silent. Bucky got the gun from the floor, and saw the way Steve looked at him. This was Steve looking at him, only Steve, nothing else. “I think the captain in you is gone.” Bucky told him softly. “Take those off,” he told Sam. Sam did as advised, and held the cuffs in his hand. “Your boss is right, we need somewhere safer to hide.” Bucky pulled Steve at the bicep to get him to stand up, and pat him on the shoulder twice, slowly. He rubbed in half circles then and Steve looked between Tony and Sam. 

 

Sam nodded and walked out of the room with Steve, and just as Bucky began to follow, Tony spoke to him. “Are we not gonna talk about what you just said?” 

 

“We can talk about it.” Bucky said, turning to face Tony. He looked Tony up and down and noticed the iron around his hand. He wondered if Tony would’ve hurt Steve with the weaponized piece. 

 

“You two were together?”

 

“Seventy years ago, yeah.” 

 

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

 

“Because it was seventy years ago, and he didn’t remember. What was I supposed to say?” Bucky sounded a little ticked off by that. “I’m sorry I didn’t say something to  _ you  _ sooner, but I didn’t want you to get worked up about it. I can tell that you two really like each other, and who am I to change your minds?”

 

“You’re Steve’s ‘love’ from seventy years ago.” Tony mocked with the word ‘love.’ 

 

“Well, he’s going to be aware fully sometime today.” Bucky acknowledged that much. “So why don’t you talk to him about it then? I’m not the person you need to talk to.” 

 

Bucky left the room soon after speaking, and Tony was alone. 

 

Out in the truck, Peter sat up when the passenger door opened. He was laying on his back, staring at the ceiling of the car just like Tony told him to do. When he saw it was Steve who opened the door, Peter panicked and sat up completely. Then he saw Sam, and he noticed how Steve wasn’t acting hostile. “Where’s Tony?” He asked, as soon as Bucky was in sight, too. 

 

“He should be right out.” Sam stated as he got into the truck on the drivers side. Peter looked at Steve curiously when they were together in the back. 

 

“Where are we going?” Peter asked the second question alone, even though he had so many in his head.

 

“I don’t know,” Sam shrugged. “And it isn’t really up to me. But, it’s nowhere bad.” 

 

“Are you okay?” Peter asked Steve when the car’s engine started up, and Tony walked out of the front door. 

 

“I’m alright,” Steve looked over at Peter. “Are you? I’m sorry.” 

 

A smile arose on Peter’s expression to that, and he shook his head. “Don’t be.” 

 

Once Tony got in and the doors were shut, Sam began the drive. Not too long into it, Tony had to keep up with Peter, making sure he didn't fall asleep. He might have gotten a concussion, so sleeping wasn’t safe at that moment. Though, Steve was fast asleep. He must’ve been sleeping off the numbness in his brain. Tony also kept his eyes on Steve. He was barely looking ahead of himself during the ride. The city they were in had a local airport. A reasonably sized one, at that. Tony knew exactly what it was when they got into parking, and when he felt the car shut off. 

 

When the car shut off, Steve woke up. The lack of movement startled him to consciousness again, most likely. Outside of the truck, they eventually all stood together. Peter looked down and noticed he was still in his suit. Then, he noticed Steve was in the Hydra suit at that point, so it was alright. 

 

“So, where are we going?” Peter asked in a hushed voice when Sam got on the phone and began to speak to someone else. 

 

“I don’t know.” Tony was the one to answer. After he said that, Steve looked at him. The glance he got was caught by Bucky, who then walked away a few feet.

 

“Come on, let’s go ask Sam about it.” Bucky said to Peter, and the younger one followed, moving them both away from Steve and Tony. 

 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked as soon as they were left alone by the truck. Tony gave a soft smile, and shrugged as he leaned back on the hood. Steve stood a little close to him. Not that he minded, he just noticed it.

 

“Why are you asking me that? You walked right past me when everything was happening. I’m alright, yeah. What about you?” 

 

Instead of getting an answer to his question, Tony got something completely different. “I didn’t mean physically.” A brief look of confusion came from Tony. He rose both eyebrows to get an explanation from Steve. “I know you aren’t going to ask, so I’ll go ahead and answer. It’s true, Bucky and I were together before all of this happened. But I don’t remember any of it. Him telling me? That’s the only reason that I know it’s true. He wouldn’t lie about that.”

 

“I know he wouldn’t. That’s why this sucks so much, because it’s true.” Tony crossed his arms over his chest, and looked to the side, away from Steve who was giving him a careful stare.

 

“So what is this?” Steve motioned his hand to Tony and his posture. “You’re really not gonna pass over something that happened so long ago? I don’t even remember it, Tony.” He noticed how Tony had been looking away just then, and smiled. “I don’t think you’re the kind of person that can stay angry.”

 

Tony took a second to register how Steve was even closer. He chose to stand up straight, and wrap his arms around Steve. The embrace they had was tight and Tony put his face in the crook of Steve’s neck. Which was unnecessarily soft, needless to say. Tony kissed there and closed his eyes.  

 

“I don’t really want you to go.” Their hug loosened up enough for him to say that. Steve still had a firm, careful grip around Tony’s upper waist, though.

 

“I don’t want to go, either.” Steve let a hand move away from Tony’s waist, so he could rub at the back of his head. Tony’s hair was soft like Steve’s skin, just not in the same way. 

 

“Tony, you can go with him.” Sam spoke up from behind them. Tony didn’t let go of Steve though, he just looked over enough to watch Sam as he said what he did. “There are other people there. You won’t be alone.” 

 

“Well what is it?” Tony asked, a little afraid that Sam was planning on sending those three to some sort of asylum. 

 

“It’s a certain area where people like you three--” he motioned to Steve, Bucky and Peter, “--can go to live safely.” The explanation made Tony look a little concerned.

 

Not concerned. A little angry, actually. “So it’s just like the facility that they’ve been in for seventy years?”

 

“No. It’s an entire neighborhood. You can come and go as you please, and it’s gated for safety.”

 

“What do you mean ‘people like you’?” Peter asked and looked from Tony to Sam a few times in question.


	14. Chapter 14

The flight wasn’t too long. Just a few hours on the plane, and they were at the reciprocating airport. Peter got antsy within the first five minutes, and was being horribly impatient about it. Tony sat at a window seat and tried to get some shut eye. Yet he couldn’t with Peter literally going off the walls of the plane’s interior. He was nuts, really. 

 

This airport was smaller, much smaller. A local airport, more less. Since it was only a few hours long, Tony concluded they were probably somewhere in the midwest. Also, the land beyond the airport was very flat. 

 

“You can go up in here acting like this, Parker.” Sam said to Peter, who was still a little all over the place as they all got off the plane. “You’re gonna freak everyone else out.”

 

“What are these other people like, anyways?” Steve asked, walking next to Tony as they moved away from the plane. Everything seemed a little isolated. A lesser suburb looking area. Which made Steve feel a little confused. “So we’re gonna stay here.” He said because he hadn’t gotten an answer to his other question. He didn’t even make the last statement a question, he just structured it without wonder.

 

“Looks like it.” Bucky breathed out and saw the way Tony glanced at him from the corner of his eye. 

 

It was a lot of walking. Until they reached a grassy area, that was a park or commonual area of the weirdly placed ‘town.’ A gated community, as Sam said. In the communal area, there were people. Quite a few people. They’d passed many when walking, but these people were just sitting around, enjoying a drink or something while enjoying themselves. Stone pathways, nice trees and benches. This place seemed normal. Still, Tony had a hard time believing it. 

 

“So it’s like Jurassic Park, but for superhumans?” Peter claimed, as one of the people in the communal area headed up to them. Tony shook his head and put a hand to Peter’s shoulder to keep him from saying much else. The man to walk up to them had a thick red coat that went to his waist along with jeans. Which clashed horribly, in Tony’s opinion. He didn’t say anything, because the man with the blond ponytail had a hammer-like weapon in his wield.

 

“Who are you?” Asked the man as he looked over the five in front of him. He seemed to somewhat recognize a few of them. “Are you that man of iron? The one with lot of money.”

 

Tony looked a little annoyed when the others looked at him, but he nodded. “That’s me. Who are you?”

 

“Thor, son of Odin.” The answer put all of them off, and Sam nudged Tony before he could respond. 

 

“I work for agent Romanoff.” Sam explained, and Thor looked at him up and down. “And Barton.” Those two names made Thor take a step back. “These three will be staying here. Well, maybe four.” Sam motioned to the rest with one hand, and the other hand was on Bucky’s bicep. 

 

Speaking of; the two agents Sam just mentioned approached the commons, and Natasha was the first to speak. “Are you all staying?”

 

“Not sure yet.” Tony said, looking at Steve. “These three for sure, though.” His eyes moved to the other agent, and he recognized him just as much as he knew Natasha. “So you two are in charge of all this?”

 

“For the most part. We stick around and make sure everything’s going alright. We have a place set aside for you three, if you want to stay here for sure.” Clint explained and then introduced himself to the rest, which started a whole minute or so of exchanging introductions. 

 

Then they headed to the building where apparently, Bucky Steve and Peter were allowed to live in. It looked like a house, a house made for living. Which felt weird for the three who planned on staying because they weren’t used to this kind of premise. “There’s one other guy you’ll be sharing the place with, but he’s easy to get along with.” Natasha told them.

 

“Do you two live here?” Steve asked the agents, and Clint nodded. Natasha didn’t.

 

“I live out past the airport.” Clint told them and Peter seemed a little confused. Why that far out?

 

“Who else do we live with?” Steve asked, and as if on queue, another man walked down the stairs. He had a white lab coat on and was reading over a statistical clipboard sheet. His eyes moved up to the group, and he stood on the last step of the stairwell. This must’ve been the other man that they lived with.

 

“This is doctor Bruce Banner.” Clint introduced the man on the last step, and Tony’s expression sparked a little. He knew the name, apparently. Steve obviously did not. “Your other roommate.”

 

“I’ve read all of your papers.” Tony remarked as Bruce took the last step down, and smiled at the rest. His smile was meek, along with his posture and hands that gripped the clipboard. 

 

“Ditto, Mr. Stark.” Bruce held a hand out and they shook for a moment, and he introduced himself to the rest similarly. Just, when he got to Peter, shaking his hand went differently, because Peter’s hand was attached to Bruce’s with webbing that crawled up his wrist sneakily. 

 

“Sorry, Dr--” Peter said and had to pry his hand from Bruce’s hastily. “I’m still working on keeping that under control, it’s kinda messy right now though.”

 

“It’s alright.” Bruce claimed and smiled. “It’s actually interesting.” As he delved into a conversation with Peter about all of his abilities, Clint went ahead and showed them the rest of the place. Natasha stayed with Bruce and Peter in the front of the house.

 

When Steve was shown to his bedroom, he was glad that the bed was fit for two. Clint left them be because he heard Peter and Bruce conversing in the lab across the hall. A small, home lab that was made for Bruce specifically. When alone, Steve looked at Tony and rose his eyebrows. In return, Tony gave a subtly knowing glance.

 

“I know what you’re gonna ask.” Tony said as Steve took his hands. “You don’t have to sugar coat it..”

 

“Will you stay here with me?” As the question was asked, Tony held onto Steve’s hands tighter with his own and closed his eyes. 

 

He opened them as he answered. “It sounds really sweet and easy in theory...the truth, though? I’m a very important person in the world. I know that sounds awful to say about myself, but it’s true. I can’t just hide out here with you, okay? It’s been a nice two week, or however long, vacation but I need to get home.” Steve was putting his hands on Tony’s shoulders at that point, holding him there instead. Tony shook his head to that and leaned in close to press his forehead to Steve’s. Though Steve had to look down a little to manage that. 

 

“Then why can’t I come with you?” Steve asked as Tony held onto him at the forearms to keep the hands on his shoulders there. 

 

“Maybe you can, I’m gonna have to jump through some hoops to get you to New York with me. You’ll have to be patient.” Reassuringly, Tony pressed a kiss to Steve’s lips and smiled. “It’s not so bad out here. It won’t be long, you just have to be patient.” As he repeated the last part, Tony backed away from Steve. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

 

With that, Tony left. Steve didn’t leave the bedroom after that. Actually, he shut the door and stayed in there alone for the time being. In the lab across the hall, Natasha was mumbling with Tony for a few moments, and as soon as they both started to walk to the exit, Peter looked over from where he was with Bruce.

 

“Are you leaving?” Peter asked as he walked over to Tony.

 

Tony looked over to Peter and gave a small frown. To that, Peter smiled, confused. “I’m leaving, yeah. But I’ll be back.” Tony put in the most reassuring tone that he could manage, and put a hand to Peter’s shoulder. “Don’t get into too much trouble, okay kid?”

 

Unexpectedly, Tony received a hug from Peter, who had a strong grip for a teenager that size. Tony pat Peter on the back a few times and nodded. “Alright..” he smiled when saying that. “See you later.”

 

Not much else was said aside from that before Tony took his leave with Natasha leading the way. He remembered the way back to the airport, but needed aid in getting Happy there to pick him up. 

 

“They’re safer here than they’d be anywhere else, Tony.” Natasha said as they waited in the airport. 

 

As Tony looked at his phone and sent Happy a few messages, he hummed in affirmation. “I know, but I don’t have a good feeling about it still.” He claimed, and looked up to Natasha, seeing her face fault with concern. “Can’t point it out or anything, but it’s not a good feeling.”

 

Tony continued trying to point it out in his head during the flight to New York. He had plenty of press meetings and speeches to give that’d keep him busy for the next week or two. It wasn’t until a few days into being back in New York that he pointed it out. Natasha and Clint worked for Shield. Shield ran that whole ‘safe as can be’ community. 

 

That’s where the concern came in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a little while, but I know EXACTLY where I'm going with this! <3


	15. Chapter 15

“When’s Mr. Stark gonna be back?” Peter asked the question the following morning. He was eating sugar-filled cereal and Steve was sitting down as he asked it. Bucky was about to sit down too, but he walked over to the table, heard the question, and took his leave. Good thing Sam was headed into the kitchen the same time he had been going back. 

 

“I don’t know.” Steve answered, easily enough too. Though he knew it wouldn’t be that easy. Peter set the spoon in his bowl, and the clink of metal against glass made him look up and see the stare he’d been getting. “I really don’t. I don’t even know if he can come back, Peter.” 

 

“Then why don’t we go see him?” Was the next question Peter had. As Steve gave him a decline of an answer, along with an explanation, Bucky stood with Sam in the kitchen.

 

Casually, Sam took Bucky’s hand and held it as they stood together. “What are you gonna do all day?”

 

“Don’t know.” Bucky smiled. “What is there to do other than feel safe?” The hold on his hand secured him enough that the gated community wasn’t even the safety he’d been referring to.

 

“I can show you around?” Sam suggested and saw the way Bucky was smiling. He laughed at that, the cuteness of it, and his free hand came up to tuck the hair in Bucky’s face behind his ear. Just as he got that close, things seemed alright. Also, just as he got that close, Peter walked into the kitchen and immediately felt embarrassed. 

 

Bucky looked away and lost his smile, but left the kitchen with Sam, as their hands were still connected. “Sorry, I’m sorry.” Peter sighed to himself and leaned back against the fridge. He didn’t readjust his slouching until someone else came into the kitchen. Not Steve. So, he tensed up out of habit.

 

It was an average man. Average height, and average body...not so average of a blue shade of eyes, though. They almost seemed to glow. What also didn’t seem average to Peter was the red leather jacket the man wore. “You’re not Banner.”

 

“Neither are you.” That got a laugh from the stranger. 

 

His face dropped a second or so after he laughed. “Who the hell are you, then?”

 

“Peter.” 

 

“Really? That’s weird.” The man who proclaimed this all as weird had a slump of a chest but a good posture, and to accommodate for that he had good arms and a jawline that wasn't too chiseled but not too undefined. 

 

They stare at each other for a few seconds, and Parker stiffened up when the opposing Peter moved. Just out of habit, Parker pressed his hand on the fridge and, well, he got it stuck there. Of course then was when Steve came back into the kitchen. 

 

“Peter Quill.” The average man introduced fully to Peter and Steve, and smiled. “Local of the galaxy, and you’re welcome, by the way.”

 

“Sorry, what?” Steve asked, and saw how Parker pulled a little at his hand. Steve used a certain amount of strength to help him out by grabbing onto his wrist and applying pressure in a spot that wouldn’t hurt, but it’d get his hand free from the fridge. Parker looked up to Steve and rubbed at his wrist, nodding with a mumbled ‘thanks.’

 

“What do you mean you’re welcome?” Parker asked Quill, and Steve turned to face the answerer. 

 

“I’m a guardian, of the entire fuckin’ galaxy.” Parker seemed interested with Quill’s answer, and laughed at the curse. Steve didn’t seem too impressed with the language. 

 

“Then what are you doing here? It sounds like earth is too primitive for you.” Steve teased, but didn’t hint at the fact that he was making fun too much. 

 

Yet Quill caught on. He shrugged and smiled. His smile was knowing and snide. “Because, jackass--” he got another laugh from Parker. “They won’t let me leave now that they’ve got me here. Same goes for the rest of us, even you.” He heard a couple of footsteps towards the stairs. “Banner!” He called and got a hum in affirmation from the living room. He left Steve and Parker in the kitchen without another word. 

 

When he was gone, Peter looked at Steve, and let go of his own wrist, feeling no more soreness from pulling. “Do you think he’s being serious?” He asked Steve, worry in his eyes.

 

Without thinking for more than a second, Steve put a hand on Peter’s back in attempt to comfort. “No, I don’t think so.” 

 

That was his answer to Peter, out loud, even if he thought the exact opposite. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This a bad excuse, but I really was confused on how to go where I wanted to go with this? Thanks for reading though (:


	16. Chapter 16

On slow feet, Bucky followed Sam. He made sure to stay about three steps behind Sam at all times. Sam talked a lot, which was good, given that Bucky didn’t favor always needing words in his mouth. He liked being quiet just fine. Sam kept going on about his family. His mother, his father, his best friend who had passed just a couple of years before. As soon as he mentioned that, Bucky was right by Sam’s side.

 

“What happened?” The sun was golden and shining down on them both. It was kind of a bad thing for Bucky, seeing as how pale he had been from those bunker years. Sam took that into realization, and took off the baseball cap he had on. With that, he slipped it on over Bucky’s head of hair, and looked at him, giving a simple grin.

 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it.” He reassured, taking it upon himself to walk three steps ahead of Bucky. He then turned around, and saw Bucky had been dissatisfied with such an action. Even though he was the one who initiated that unspoken ‘three steps of space’ rule. So, Bucky walked a little quicker and got on the same pace as Sam. 

 

Silence. That was something that usually, Bucky didn’t mind. Right now? After Sam had been talking his ass off? It was unusual feeling. It set Bucky off, is all. “Where are we going, anyways?” They were on a long dirt road as the sun, golden as mentioned before, shone on them. Bucky didn’t mind the heat after so long of being cold, which was good in this case. 

 

Eventually, after Sam didn’t respond, and just kept walking, leading Bucky, they ended up somewhere. A small plain the had scattered flat top trees. It was serene, large bales of hay rolled up and sat around the plain. In reciprocation, there was a small herd of cows, black and white, some brown. They all gathered loosely on the further end of the plain, though, nowhere near Bucky and Sam. Not that they even knew the two men were there.

 

“Is this all part of SHIELD’s land?” Bucky asked while Sam and him took a seat beneath one of the flat top trees with a thick, aged trunk. 

 

“It is. I think it’s something like two thousand acres.” Bucky looked around when he sat down, back against the trunk of the tree. Clearly, he was unsure of the measurements Sam threw out at him. “A couple miles of land.” He corrected himself, simplified it for Bucky.

 

Bucky then nodded, thinking about it. “What’s it really for, though? It could easily be seen as containment.” His eyes moved over to Sam, and he then noticed how impeccable the man’s eyes looked in the sunlight. “I kind of see it that way.”

 

“Why?” Sam seemed unsure of where Bucky was coming from.

 

“Can I come and go as I please?” As soon as Sam shook his head, Bucky nodded his own head. “Can I talk to outsiders whenever I want?” Another shake of the head came from Sam. “Can I contradict these rules?”

At that point, Sam had stopped shaking his head. He knew what Bucky meant. He didn’t say much of anything though, because he could see where Bucky came from now. When he did speak, it wasn’t about the land, or SHIELD. It was about Bucky. “If you were in trouble, I’d tell you.” 

 

It assessed that Sam- if he did know about any trouble- would tell Bucky. That reassurance along made for less tension vibe between them. Sam was glad about that. His relief shifted into confusion when he felt the weight of Bucky against him though. Bucky didn’t act like the cuddly type. With Sam, he was a whole different type of person it seemed. Not that Sam minded, he felt his heartbeat race every time Bucky touched him. Out in the sunlight, beneath the tree, it felt so right to just be there with Bucky. 

 

As Bucky looked up to get a glimpse of Sam from beneath the brim of his hat, he gave a kind smile to the man who stared right back down at him. Those pretty brown eyes looked golden with the sun on them, and to that, Bucky rose up from where he rested at a lean, and he kissed  Sam as if it were effortless. 

 

Without either of them helping it, Bucky’s hat fell off as the kiss progressed, and shortly after it ended in a slow, paced out manner of lingering lips, Sam felt a vibration of his phone in his pants pocket. “Of course.” Bucky huffed a little bit and then took a resting lean back on the trunk of the tree again, putting his hat back on. Not correctly, though. He put it over his face and hid his pinking cheeks from Sam who already noticed anyways. 

 

Sam checked his phone, and it was an update from one of the men who guarded the place. A security guard, generally speaking. “I’ve gotta get back there. And quick, too.” He stood up, and saw Bucky peek from his hat, a little concerned. “You stay here.”

 

That alone was enough to concern Bucky completely. Dangerous things probably awaited Sam, and now Sam was doing as he said, keeping Bucky away from the danger. He wanted to get up and follow, but didn’t want to piss Sam off, who was running back to the dirt road and down to the communal area of the place.

 

The sight he faced was one he feared. Sam saw plenty of security guards gathered by the commons, and the way their rifles were out and aimed at residents frightened not only Sam, but Steve too. “What’s going on?” Steve asked as he joined Sam at his side, and then saw what was in the middle of the commons. Right on the fountain’s circular cement top, Peter stood, hooked on by webs that connected to his wrists and he was tentative about every move. He was clearly very frightened, and that alone had Steve becoming more aggravated by the second. 

 

The residents gathered around trying to get a better look at Peter and make sense of it all were chattering loud enough to make Peter’s words white noise. “Peter.” Steve called over everyone else, and with that, the scene went silent. Peter looked in the direction of the voice, and then saw Steve. “Peter, is this about what Quill said?” He asked and speak of the devil, Quill stood on the other side of the fountain, his eyes locking right onto Steve in question. 

 

“Not just about that.” Peter said and noticed one of the rifles being aimed at Steve. He shot a web and latched it to the weapon, yanking it from the guard’s grip, before throwing it far from the fountain area. “There’s just really something wrong about all this. None of this is as perfect as it seems. This is exactly what Hydra was doing, just nicer, more efficient, so that we  _ agree  _ to be here.” 

  
  


At the time of such a scene, Tony was in a hotel in a nearby city. He was meant to stay in New York for business reasons, but for right now, he was staying nearby the facility that SHIELD had conjured. He didn’t trust it, not one bit. So he poked into the system, and had FRIDAY set for alerting him if anything off occurred. Right now, that alert setting came into play. “Sir, I think this is something you’ll want to be a part of.” Her voice chimed through his whole suite, and Tony took up his phone nearby and watched the footage from one of the guard’s security cameras that played along. 

 

Peter looking afraid and misunderstood as he did made Tony get up from laying in bed rather easily. Yes, he was sleeping in. He was still let down from having to leave Steve and Peter. “Fri, signal my suit to the parking lot. Now.” He was getting dressed already, nothing fancy. He put on a linen striped blazer after jeans and a t-shirt, to outweigh the unclassiness with class. 

 

In minutes, he was off in the suit, and got to the plantation after a quick roundabout of the perimeter. He landed near the field Bucky still sat in alone. The leaves of the tree Bucky was under began to rustle with the impact of Tony’s suit nearby, and he got up. Bucky slid the hat Sam put on him back on as he jogged closer to Tony. “Stark. Hey, Stark!” He called and got Tony’s attention rather easily. When Bucky was close and could talk, he looked confused. “What the hell is going on? I thought you were still being a douchebag and not being here.”

 

“Firstly, I’m not sure why that makes me a douchebag. I have a job, and a life. Secondly--”

 

“You sure seemed to wrap Steve around your finger before going back to that job and life.”

 

“--Secondly.” Tony took a deep breath, and huffed it out before continuing. “Something bad’s happening, and I need to help them out. Are you gonna help me out, or are you just gonna keep being one with the cattle?”


	17. Chapter 17

“Don’t shoot.” Tony’s voice came through the communal spot where everyone had been gathered. He walked in his suit, and shocked many of the people around. Peter seemed the most visibly shocked, though.

 

“You stay away from me.” Peter said to Tony with urge, and Steve seemed to join the selective amounts of shocked people in the crowded spot. As Tony let his faceplate leave to show his questioning expression, Peter continued. “You were just going to leave us.” He pointed at Tony and shook his head. “You left us here with these criminals.” 

 

“Criminals?” Bucky echoed the word, and got a glance from Steve that seemed more concerned than shocked at that point. He didn’t know what to feel, as did many of the people around right now. 

 

The first to truly defend Peter was Quill, who spoke loud and clear. “He’s right. This whole place is run by these shithole terrorists.” He was the point of focus for the few guards who had previously been aimed at Peter. “I’ve been stuck on earth for a year now because they won’t let me leave. They took my ship and destroyed it.” Without being stopped, other’s jumped in.

 

“Yes, and they for some reason don’t allow foreign weaponry.” Thor stated, arms folded over his chest. 

 

Bruce was the next one to tack on more information as the guards had no idea how to react. Being called out was always hard to confront. “I’m only alone five percent of the time now. And if my heart rate gets above a certain number, I’m locked up for the rest of the day.”

 

As they were all speaking, Bucky got a closer look at one of the guard’s, and then the patch on their shoulder. “Oh, my god. Steve.” He whispered while standing next to him. Steve looked over to see what he was being told about, and saw it clearly since it was pointed out. 

 

A stealth black on black Hydra patch. At that point, Bucky didn’t move from Steve’s side. Fear, or something like it, was seen in his and Steve’s eyes. “You took us to a nicer facility that’s run by the same people.” Steve sounded dry with his words, and saw the way Tony was trying to get Peter to come down to the ground again. “You were gonna leave us here forever.” He said louder so that Tony knew it was to him.

 

“Bucky..” Sam walked up to the scene, and joined the shocked when he was hit to go back. Bucky laid a hard slap on him with his metal arm, which hissed as soon as he stopped moving. It made Sam back up a few feet. 

 

“Back off.” Bucky demanded with no tone aside from anger in his voice. He was a bit hopeless due to the fact that there seemed to be no way out of this one. 

 

Facing Steve, Tony let the rest of his suit contract so he could be face to face, body to body, without any threats between them. He couldn’t say anything though, not with the guards on their asses. It seemed that none of them had the guts to speak or fight with all of the security around. Either that, or nobody knew what to say. 

 

The tension grew and grew, until it popped like a bubble. Things took quite the violent turn as a resident that Bucky, Peter or Steve had seen before, rose a scepter and lashed it at the fountain as if it were a large wand. He seemed to smile while doing it, which is why everyone watched while the blue flash broke the fountain top and gave a good distraction and start to the much needed fight. 

 

“Loki!” Thor enthused, and half embraced his brother as soon as he could while chaos broke out. More security seemed to show up out of nowhere, and it seemed to be half and half, a very even divide between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad.’ “How the hell did you get that back?”

 

“There was no security there to guard it, they seem to all be out here.” Loki saw how Peter swung from one of the trees to kick a security guard down.

 

“Is this not the sort of thing you think humans have coming to them?” Thor prodded and saw the way Loki rolled his eyes before blasting a guard advancing in their direction.

 

Loki’s answer was sweet and to the point, and after he said it, he ran off into the chaos. “What can I say, brother? I love a good fight.” 

 

The first wave of guards were down and everyone sort of grouped up in the middle. As Sam approached Bucky again, Steve and Peter both stood in between as a barrier. “I didn’t know.” Sam confessed in defense of himself. 

 

Before much else could happen there, Tony landed on the ground again and stepped out of his suit easily. “We have two options here.” He began with, ignoring the glare he’d been getting from Steve and how Peter looked away at any point possible. “We can either take down every Hydra member in the whole facility, or we can evac and deal with it outside of this damn place.” As he explained the two routes they could go down, everyone seemed to listen one way or another.

 

“How many of them are there?” Asked Quill, who had one of the rifles from the guards in a firm grip. 

 

“A lot.” Sam answered the question without thought. “They’ll just keep coming. I think there’s a third option though, Stark.” He noticed how Steve and Bucky both listened in to that part more so. “We send a few people out so that the truth doesn’t die here. I hope all of us won’t be goners if we stay here, but it’s the best option.”

 

“Well, with that plan, who gets to leave?” As Thor asked that question, commotion had been heard far off as another wave of guards was most likely stampeding towards them. It didn’t sound like they had much more time to chit chat before the second fight. 

 

“Let’s see who makes it outta this fight first.” Tony exclaimed as the guards were in sight. Just before they got to fighting, Steve was thrown his shield. He caught it perfectly, of course, and looked over to see that Clint was the one who threw it at him. Bow and arrow in his hands, he stood with the residents as the fight commenced. 

 

“Thought you might need a hand.” Clint joked when Steve and him stood by one another fighting. 

 

“Who is that man who started the fight?” Steve asked in a short lull between guards.

 

“That’s Loki, he’s a wild card.” Clint sighed. “Absolute psycho who’s probably enjoying the hell out of this.” 

 

Steve was going to respond, though there was no more time for him to do so. Just as Steve went to respond, he heard something worrying. “Stark!” It was Bucky who called out so drastically and with that, Steve diverted his attention to that. Tony didn’t have his whole suit on again, just the gauntlet to his left arm. He didn’t look good when Steve was examining the issue. Needless to say, Steve was horrified to find that Tony had been stabbed through mercilessly by one of the elite guards. The elite guard being none other than Brock Rumlow. 

 

When Tony fell to the ground and looked up to see many people fighting around, he looked over for his glasses and grabbed at them. “Friday, call in evac for everyone. Helicopters, a lot of them.” He didn’t sound so weak, not until he felt Rumlow pull the blade out of him. For a second, Tony looked up to the sky and thought that was it. Though he didn’t lose all of his hope since Steve was at his aid in seconds. 

 

“Knight in shining armor.” Tony mumbled, attempting at humor. He noticed how Bucky used one of the rifles to shoot down Rumlow, and Sam helped by kicking the man down to the ground as soon as possible. It didn’t look like he’d be getting up from that one. He only got such a good view of that because Steve lifted him up with one arm hooked under his knees and the other at the top of his back. It made for the perfect position so that Tony could rest his head right on Steve’s shoulder. 

 

“I’m gonna get him out of here. He just called in evac. Keep an eye out for choppers.” Steve said to Sam and Bucky before getting out of the fight and rushing off with Tony. He went right for the house that they put Bucky, Peter and him in. Only because he knew Bruce had a lot of medical supplies in the home lab they provided. 

  
A pained noise left Tony when he was set down on the lab table. The hard surface felt both good and bad for his wounded body. “It’s okay.” Steve reassured him and politely sent the gauntlet off of Tony with the push of a button on the bottom of his wrist. As soon as that was out of the way, Steve got Tony’s shirt off and that was enough for him to see the wound fully. Blood painted almost all of Tony’s torso, the bottom half at least. 

 

“I can’t believe that asshole pulled the blade out.” Tony groaned and closed his eyes as Steve started with wiping up the blood to see the impact of the wound itself better. “Doesn’t he know that makes it so much worse?”

 

“I think he knew that.” Steve answered, voice vacant of any tone as he focused completely on patching Tony up. He seemed experienced with the quick, potentially fatal wounds. A couple of stitches were made, and the whole time Tony groaned and complained about the pain. “I think it feels a lot better than death.” Steve eventually said.

 

“You’d make an amazing doctor.” Tony wryly joked and stayed laying down when Steve finished with a large patch that he pasted right over the stitched up wound. 

 

Steve washed his hands on the other side of the lab, and while he dried them with a paper towel, Tony ended the silence between them. “I’m sorry that I left.” Before Steve could protest to him apologizing, Tony sat up as much as he could and looked Steve in the eyes. “I just want you to understand that I had no idea what they were doing. I know that Sam didn’t know, either. Something happened here, something we don’t have every detail on yet.”

 

“With Rumlow dead, I’d assume the topic’s dead as well.” Steve answered after tossing out the paper towel, and saw the glanced Tony had been giving him. He looked around slowly when hearing the rumble of helicopters outside, getting louder by the second.

 

“Sam and Natasha didn’t have anything to do with it, but they work for the people who let Hydra buy them out.” Tony stood, and limped momentarily. Steve was by his side shortly after, and held him up around the shoulders. “The topic isn’t dead, but I have a feeling that we have to kill it before it gets out of hand.” His voice is weak, but he did his best not to let it show. “I liked it a lot better when you carried me.” Tony suggested subtly, and looked to see the look on Steve’s face. “Too soon?” He asked, smiling nervously and giving a guilty expression.

 

“A little too soon.” The answer came without hesitance from Steve, who walked Tony out of the house as the fighting dialed down over in the communal part. Steve looked over to see one of the helicopters, empty and nearby waiting. To speed up the walk, Steve did pick Tony up, and he jogged over to the chopper with him. After sitting Tony down in it, he stepped back off. 

 

A laugh came from Tony, and he coughed shortly after because of how raspy his throat felt. “What are you doing? Get on.”

 

“I’m gonna go round everyone up. Nobody’s getting left behind here.” Steve noticed Tony sitting up to get off the helicopter again. He put a hand to Tony’s chest and pressed him back down into his seat. “I’ll be right back.” As Steve added that on, his hand lingered for a moment longer than it should’ve, and he noticed how Tony had lost the guilt in his expression. 

 

“You better be right back.” Tony huffed and rested back down again, watching Steve hold onto his shield and run back over to make sure everyone got back on. Everyone seemed to be securely in helicopters. Almost everybody, anyways. 

 

Steve pat on the side of a chopper to get Sam’s attention. “You seen Peter?” He asked and noticed Bucky, holding ice to his jaw next to Sam, looked concerned at the question. That began Steve’s quick check on all of the choppers, and when he concluded that Peter wasn’t on any of them, he got back to Tony’s. Sitting on it now was Clint and Natasha, who had been having a slow conversation with Tony. Tony seemed exhausted, though he had a good reason to feel such a way. 

 

Relief came over Tony though as Steve was in sight. When Steve didn’t sit next to him though, Tony sat up a bit, eyes opening fully from being almost closed. “Come on. We can’t wait here forever, more will show up.” He pat the spot next to him, and did his best to give Steve a smile, even if it were weak. 

 

“Peter’s gone.” Before Tony could point out that nobody could’ve taken Peter off, Steve added on to his statement. “He left.”

 


	18. Chapter 18

“It’s so..much.” Steve’s eyes were wider than normal, his arms crossed over his chest while he looked over his shoulders every few moments. They stood in the penthouse of Tony’s tower. When his eyes laid back on Tony, the brunet stood with a phone in his hand. This phone was larger, and had one button and a sleek black figure. He extended his arm out to hand it to Steve, who took it with curiosity in his expression. 

 

“It is a lot, but that’s the nature of my being at this point.” Tony sighed with his answer, and saw Steve question the phone. “Since your last one broke, and it’s quite the upgrade.”

 

Steve roamed around the large, open area of the penthouse before taking a seat on the couch. “This is all great, but I think we should find Peter. We’re so far from where we were, he could be hurt and we wouldn’t even know.”

 

“He bugged out the part of the system in the suit I made that lets me know where he is. He didn’t bug out the part that lets me know his vitals.” Since he wasn’t depicting worry as much as Steve, Tony corrected the soldier’s thoughts. “I do care, though. Trust me.”

 

“You aren’t acting like it.” Steve set the phone down, and he took notice of how Tony showed annoyance in his expression. “What? You can’t possibly be irritated, it’s a valid topic to bring up.”

 

“It’s a dead end of a topic.” Tony shot back in a second, setting two glasses of water down onto the slate top coffee table. He took a seat next to Steve, keeping his distance from the clearly ticked off man. “What the hell am I even supposed to do? I can’t force him to be here with me. That’s the exact opposite of what we’re doing here, right? Giving all these people free will again. If Peter doesn’t want to be here, he doesn’t have to be here. He’s safe right now, that’s what matters.”

 

To that, Steve stood up, and walked away from the couch. Tony huffed, and rose his hands in exasperation. “Listen, Rogers, I’m not going to argue with you. I’d lose a fight with you any day. All I’m saying is that the kid isn’t really a kid, and he can do what he wants.”

 

After making a face of disagreement, Steve went to the elevator and pressed the button to head downwards in the building. “Did you design this building?” Steve got a nod from Tony when asked that question. “Yeah, I thought so. It’s not just too much, I also think it’s ugly. It ruins the city’s aesthetics.” 

 

A sigh came from Tony, and he got to his feet as well. “Where are you going?” He pondered when Steve got on the elevator.

 

“To go and find him. Maybe I’ll find someone who cares along the way, because you clearly don’t.”

  
  


The room Tony had both Sam and Bucky in had two beds. It was useless, but worth it when they pushed the beds together and had one big bed to cuddle in. It had been numerous hours since they were settled in to what felt like a lavish hotel room when they laid together beneath the covers. Sam had his arm around the back of Bucky’s neck and Bucky was laying against Sam’s chest for the most part. It was a serene time in which they both fell asleep every now and then for intervals of just a few minutes.

 

“It feels nice to not worry about anything.” Bucky spoke in a soft, yet coherent mumble. “It also felt nice to beat Rumlow’s ass into the ground.”

 

They shared a tired laugh to that, and Sam shifted so that he held both arms around Bucky while the other man partially laid on him. “It is nice to not feel threatened, even if it’ll only last a little while.”

 

“A little while?” Bucky asked and then gave a laugh. “I don’t plan on fighting another day for the rest of my life.” His words came seriously, and Sam understood he was being stern about that. 

 

So he assumed it was the best time for a subject change. “I bet there are a bunch of other things you haven’t ever done. Driving a car wasn’t the only think you hadn’t done, right?”

 

“Uh, well, driving a car I’d done before. Driving a big ass truck with enormous wheels was something I hadn’t done before.” Bucky smiled as he spoke. “There are a lot of things I haven’t experienced though.”

 

“Well let’s do some of those things. Make a list and I’ll walk you through every single one.” Sam couldn’t help but grin right back as Bucky looked up at him. Not too long after Sam spoke, he felt Bucky moving, and saw how Bucky laid on his stomach. Still though, he was mounted nicely atop Sam’s chest. This made for his hair to tickle at Sam’s neck, and for their noses to brush against each other. 

 

Then, Sam wasn’t too shocked when they kissed. Bucky was quick with his movement, passionate too. That made for a sloppy yet somehow coordinated makeout session which only ended when either of them needed to breath properly. Bucky used the period of breathing to shift again. He laid on his back next to Sam, but grabbed at Sam’s biceps to pull him on top this time. They shared a small series of laughter before kissing again, Sam lying on top of Bucky this time around. 

 

“Is this something on your list?” Sam asked when they broke apart again. Sam had one leg between both of Bucky’s, which allowed for some friction to come into play at Bucky’s groin. 

 

WIth a light smile still there, Bucky nodded. “Definitely.” He exclaimed that before rolling his hips up into Sam’s leg where warmth gathered and exchanged rather quickly. “Go ahead and cross it off my list for me.” 

  
  


There were a few things Steve figured out about Peter. The major thing was where he was from. Queens was very different from Brooklyn, but they both had similarities. Steve knew either way that this was a possibility of where Peter went. It was a large area to cover though, looking for one kid who didn’t seem to want to be found. Steve looked for hours, though, on feet. He didn’t get tired easily, so he wasn’t planning on stopping until he found Peter.

  
At one point, Steve considered giving up. He’d checked all of the key spots around, and he’d even checked a few alleyways. Where he ended up taking a break and deciding on whether or not to continue search was where he found Peter. In a small but busy lunch place with a few booths in the back corner. In the booth furthest back near the bathrooms and kitchen entrance, Peter sat. He had a sweatshirt on over his suit by the looks of it, and also a worn in pair of slack that looked like he got them from a thrift store. With the emergency pocket money Tony gave them each, Peter probably got some darker clothes to blend in with crowds. 

 

The hood of his sweatshirt was up over his head, and Peter looked like he was just reading a book that had a library barcode on the side. As soon as Steve sat across from him, Peter almost literally had his nose in the book to hide his face. 

 

“Okay, do you think I’m dumb?” Steve asked as Peter kept his face hidden, and slowly slouched back in his seat.

 

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

 

A brief pause came between them, and Steve sat up a bit stiffer. “Alright. Want me to get Tony? He’ll talk with you.”

 

To that, Peter stood up and shut the book. “I don’t want to talk to him even more. I’m just a problem to him, and I don’t want that.” So Tony seemed to be the reason Peter ran off. 

 

“So what’s your plan?” Steve asked, moving on from the part about Tony. “Sit back down. Tony’s in Manhattan right now.” With a bit of a hesitant glance to the door, Peter slid back into his seat on the other side of the booth. Steve took the book from across the table and read the blurb on the back. It was a book on the spies of World War II. “We weren’t spies, you know.” He handed the book back. “We were hostages. And we definitely weren’t written about in this book, or any book.”

 

“I know.” Peter mumbled, but it was still coherent to Steve. “I just want to understand what they were gonna do to me.” Such an explanation made Steve frown and droop his head a little.

 

“So, answer me this time. What’s your plan?” Steve prodded about the question, looking back to Peter with a questioning stare. 

 

After a shrug came from Peter, he answered. “I don’t really have one. I’m doing fine though.” 

 

“What are you gonna do after you spend the rest of that money, Peter?” 

 

“I’ll make more. I can get a job.”

 

“Not until you’re sixteen.” Steve shook his head, seeing Peter sit back in his seat again. “I know you might not believe me, but you aren’t any kind of burden on Tony. If you brought him down in any way, trust me, he wouldn’t keep you around.”

 

Another break of silence came between them, and Peter took the book in a hearty grip. “Then why was he just gonna leave us in that place?” He nearly said that so quietly that Steve couldn’t hear him. “He left you too, you know.”

 

“I know.” Steve felt a pang through his heart at the realization. Tony did cower out of all that he committed to. Well, he hadn’t committed to it for too long, but it was a good amount of time. Even the smallest amount of time wouldn’t allow for Tony to do what he did. “He made a mistake, he really shouldn’t have left us, and I think he understands that. But Peter, please just try to sit down and talk with him. It’ll help you understand a lot more.” 

 

Slowly, Peter processed all that Steve said. It wasn’t a lot, but he was extremely exhausted and in need of a good night’s sleep since he got nothing of the sort while heading to New York City his own path the day prior. “Only if you’re there too.” In agreement, Steve nodded before slipping out of his side of the booth and into the same side as Peter. They ordered lunch together soon after and when they paid, they headed towards Tony’s building.


	19. Chapter 19

Returning to Stark’s building, Steve and Peter were confused to not find Tony in the penthouse. Steve made sure it was empty before looking to see Peter taking in the sight of the city. “With your moves, I’m sure you can get this view all day.” Steve stood next to Peter as they bot admired the city skyline while the sun was beaming down brightly. 

 

“You’re not wrong, but I’ve never been in this building. It’s like a dream to be in here.” As Peter answered, he walked over to the balcony doors and felt more liberated the closer he got to the glass. While Steve and him stood near the door, they heard the elevator open and looked over at the same time to see Tony walk in. He’d been looking at his phone and only looked up when noticing the other two in the room. 

 

Walking over to Tony, Peter offered a smile and had his hands clasped in front of him awkwardly. “I wanted to talk to you.” He admitted, looking over for a second to see Steve looking over the interaction from by the glass door. Looking at Steve for a second, Peter made his way over to Tony with slow steps.

  
Once they were sat down together, Steve migrated to the second floor of the penthouse. It was clear that somehow he had still been present though. His amplified hearing made for him to listen in to the conversation easily; even from the top of the stairs. 

 

It came down to one thing Peter said. He sat on the other side of the couch, away from Tony. “I don’t want you to have to take care of me. You don’t have to take care of me. I’m not gonna be a burden. Not to you, or anyone.”

 

“Listen, Parker.” Tony stiffened up a little where he sat on the couch. His arm rested over the back of the couch. He was still in major recovery from recent wound. That was clear with how he slouched right back down as soon as he could. “Nobody ever said you’d be a burden if you stuck around with me. I’m more than happy to take you in. You won’t be a burden to anyone.” 

 

After scooting across the couch, Peter moved instantly to hug Tony, while his eyes locked onto the floor. Steve watched all the while, but from afar. He let them have their moment, after all. “You saved us.” Peter said once the hug had fallen apart, and Tony shrugged.

 

“I wouldn’t say that. I was held captive myself. I think you saved yourselves.” 

 

“No. You saved us.” Steve walked back downstairs, looking Tony over. He joined them, sitting on the other side of Tony, putting a hand on his bicep. “I would’ve never been able to break free on my own. I didn’t even know that Bucky was there with me. I- well, I guess I did, somewhat, but I was still pretending not to know.” 

 

Not arguing with either of them, Tony just laughed, and nodded. “Well alright, I’m just glad you two are safe, anyways. Peter, let me show you your room.” He got to his feet, and began to walk to the stairwell. 

 

Perplexed, Peter looked at Tony. “My room?” He asked, standing up and following quickly. He used webbing to pull himself to the top of the stairwell awhile before Tony even got to the top. “I get a room? Wait- I get to stay here?” The hype was heard in his tone, and he enthused visibly as well, pulling Tony along to hurry up and show him the room that he mentioned. 

 

Larger than the base room Peter had before, this one had a bathroom and closet attached, and the windows on one wall went from the floor to the ceiling. In it was a bed, mirror and rug. It seemed more like a guest room. “You can make it...you. It’s been a guest room up until now.” Steve joined Tony at his side as soon as he finished speaking. They both watched Peter look around the room, bewilderment in his eyes. “And you,” Tony turned to Steve, and put both hands on his shoulders, where his neck just barely began. “I was kinda hoping we could share a room. Unless you’re still upset with me?” 

 

Steve gave a light laugh, and when Peter was wandering his bathroom, he gave Tony a nice kiss too. “Of course we can. I’m still a little upset, but I’ll get over it.” The last part was jokingly said, and looked around Tony’s expression to see his content. 

 

* * *

 

 

“Steve!” Bucky called from downstairs. Sam and him were at the bar of Tony’s lounge floor. There was a nice get together, a subtle party, for those who had escaped that secretly Hydra run facility. Thor was next to Bucky, and that’s what shocked Steve when he came down to see what was going on. In Thor’s hand were two shot glasses, and Bucky smiled as Thor handed him one. “You’ve gotta try these. Turns out alcohol does shit, but this stuff?” He nodded, big smile to his lips still. He was also smiling because of how Sam had one arm draped over his shoulders.

 

“Easy, though.” Tony said from the other end of the bar. He wasn’t drinking alcohol, just soda water. “I don’t want a drunk boyfriend.” Steve caught the stare from Tony, and they shared a sweet expression with one another. Steve did one shot, and set the glass down.

 

“I would like to thank you for inviting my brother, Stark.” Thor pat Tony on the back a bit harshly, but didn’t pay mind to it. “Even though he did destroy a majority of that place for no reason.” 

 

“I think he said he had a reason.” Behind the bar was Natasha, and she gave the boys a smile that went well with all of theirs. 

 

“‘Because it was fun’ is not a reason.” Thor did his shot, and sat it down next to Steve’s glass. He looked over when hearing a laugh that wasn’t familiar. “I thought you said that the kid was not invited?” Thor asked, and Tony turned around slowly from where he sat.

 

It had been a few months since everything happened, and Peter was no enrolled in high school officially, attending classes every day and getting straight A’s as one would think. He loved school, and he had been living with Tony and Steve all the while. “He wasn’t, he’s got a lotta homework to-” Peter stood across the way, Scott Lang was shaking hands with him and Peter looked so happy that he might’ve been shaking because of everyone he’d been surrounded by. “God dammnit.” Tony stood up and walked towards Peter, who saw Tony coming, and subtly ended the conversation he’d been having to run upstairs and attempt to hide in the crowd. 

 

“How’s the apartment hunting?” Steve asked Bucky and Sam this after Thor left, and Natasha listened in too, leaning against the bar while doing so. 

 

“We’ve narrowed it down to two places. But we think we’re choosing the first one, in Brooklyn.” Bucky explained this as Sam nodded. “It’s a leap of faith, really.” He laughed in joking, and felt Sam kiss at his cheek.

 

“One that we’re willing to take.” Sam claimed and they held each other at the bar while the party went on around them.

 

Upstairs, Steve found Tony and Peter. Peter of course was complaining. “No, c’mon mister Stark, there’s so much fun to have right now.” He motioned around them. He kept it up, and Tony eventually looked at Steve, who spoke.

 

“I’m a little beat myself, how about I take him back up to the penthouse and keep an eye on him there?” He felt Tony’s hand on his shoulder when he’d been close enough, and got a nod from his boyfriend. It was nice, finally being able to call him that confidently. 

 

Groaning in defeat, Peter left with Steve as the party went on. After he finished his homework, they watched a movie together. Steve fell asleep halfway through it though, and Peter stayed up watching. Somewhere around the time when Steve was falling asleep on the couch, Tony sat down next to him. “Is the party over?”

 

“For us? Yeah.” Affectionately, Tony cuddled up next to Steve, and Peter sat on his blanket bed in front of the couch while the movie played. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading if you went all the way through! I had fun writing this. For a majority of the time I was happy to have @dirtkid123 proof read and edit out any errors I had so you got to read every chapter without issue. Go over to their account, they have a talent for writing fics.   
> PS: if you don't want someone to find your fanfiction account...just change your name to what it used to be but backwards.


End file.
